Anatomy of an Escher Lizard

A tessellation is a tiling of shapes or figures without any gaps or overlaps. The artist M.C. Escher made tessellations famous with his artwork. One of his most popular pieces was Reptiles, in which tessellating lizards leave the flat page and become alive. This video animation is a study in how Escher created his reptiles from hexagons, complete with all the separate operations, and how he "tiled" a page full of them. It is set to the music of Saint Sans, Carnival of the Animals.