(11-24-2017, 11:36 AM)Mermaid Wrote: The ones I can't stand, however, are the sensitive scales [...] headcanons. ...I'm pretty sure that's not how scales work. I think the closest thing we humans have is our fingernails. The nerves are under them not in them so how can they be sensitive? I imagine all they can really feel is temperatures intense enough to be felt through them and the pressure from them being touched.
Reptiles are surprisingly sensitive to touch. Scales can have nerves, just like skin, and those nerves can be very sensitive. Alligators, for instance, have these little nerve clusters on the surface of their scales that are sensitive to all sorts of things: touch, vibration, pressure, friction, even sound. Fingernails aren't particularly sensitive because they don't have these things, but I imagine Au Ra might.
