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How does the human epidermis shed differently from a snake’s outer skin layer?

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Learn how regenerative properties of the skin helps to protect the human body from the external environment — human skin Human skin, whose cells are generated continuously by the body, serves as a protective barrier between the inside of the human body and the environment.

The shedding of skin in humans and snakes differs significantly in both process and purpose.

In humans, the process is known as desquamation. The epidermis constantly produces new cells in its basal layer, which migrate to the surface. The outermost layer, the stratum corneum, consists of dead cells that are continually and individually sloughed off, typically one layer at a time, as part of a daily, ongoing cycle. This process is often aided by friction from movement or clothing.12

In contrast, snakes undergo a process called molting or ecdysis. Because a snake’s skin does not grow with its body, it must periodically shed its entire outer layer to accommodate growth. Unlike the continuous, microscopic shedding in humans, a snake’s replacement cells grow in a synchronized cycle, cohering into a single, complete unit. Once a new layer is formed beneath the old one, the snake sheds the entire old skin in one piece, often by rubbing it loose around the mouth and crawling out of it.345