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Fish: Dorsal view of right-bending (left) and left-bending (right) jaw morphs [4]. Many flatfish, such as flounders, have eyes placed asymmetrically in the adult fish.The fish has the usual symmetrical body structure when it is young, but as it matures and moves to living close to the sea bed, the fish lies on its side, and the head twists so that both eyes are on the top.
Symmetry in biology refers to the symmetry observed in organisms, including plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. External symmetry can be easily seen by just looking at an organism. For example, the face of a human being has a plane of symmetry down its centre, or a pine cone displays a clear symmetrical spiral pattern.
Contrary to appearances, the fish do not have bilateral symmetry: the white curves of the drawing are not axes of reflection symmetry. [9] [10] For example, the angle at the back of the right fin is 90° (where four fins meet), but at the back of the much smaller left fin it is 120° (where three fins meet).
Bilateria (/ ˌ b aɪ l ə ˈ t ɪər i ə /) [5] is a large clade or infrakingdom of animals called bilaterians (/ ˌ b aɪ l ə ˈ t ɪər i ə n /), [6] characterised by bilateral symmetry (i.e. having a left and a right side that are mirror images of each other) during embryonic development.
Animals mainly have bilateral or mirror symmetry, as do the leaves of plants and some flowers such as orchids. [30] Plants often have radial or rotational symmetry, as do many flowers and some groups of animals such as sea anemones. Fivefold symmetry is found in the echinoderms, the group that includes starfish, sea urchins, and sea lilies. [31]
In the first chapter, entitled Patterns with Classical Symmetry, the author introduces the concepts of motif, symmetry operations, lattice and unit cell, and uses these to analyze the symmetry of 13 of Escher's tiling designs. In the second chapter, Patterns with Black-white Symmetry, the antisymmetry operation (indicated by a prime ') is ...
Macroscopic examples of chirality are found in the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom and all other groups of organisms. A simple example is the coiling direction of any climber plant, which can grow to form either a left- or right-handed helix. In anatomy, chirality is found in the imperfect mirror image symmetry of many kinds of animal bodies.
This article describes symmetry from three perspectives: in mathematics, including geometry, the most familiar type of symmetry for many people; in science and nature; and in the arts, covering architecture, art, and music. The opposite of symmetry is asymmetry, which refers to the absence of symmetry.