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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.
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.
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.
Savaging; overt aggression directed to newborn offspring by a mother animal, often including cannibalistic infanticide. [28] Self-cannibalism (autophagy, autosarcophagy); an animal eating itself. [29] [30] Self-injury; an animal injuring its own body tissues. [31] Sham or "vacuum" dustbathing; dustbathing in the absence of appropriate substrate ...
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]
Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is often considered to be the product of developmental stress and instability, caused by both genetic and environmental stressors. The notion that FA is a result of genetic and environmental factors is supported by Waddington's notion of canalisation, which implies that FA is a measure of the genome's ability to successfully buffer development to achieve a normal ...
Examples include even and odd functions in calculus, symmetric groups in abstract algebra, symmetric matrices in linear algebra, and Galois groups in Galois theory. In statistics , symmetry also manifests as symmetric probability distributions , and as skewness —the asymmetry of distributions.