Radial Symmetry Quotes

The environment was full of birds and insects, rodents and small reptiles - decorative in appearance, but also satisfying a more abstract aesthetic: softening the harsh radial symmetry of the lone observer; anchoring the simulation by perceiving it from a multitude of view-points. Ontological guy lines.

Today biologists believe that during the “Cambrian explosion,” about half a billion years ago, nature experimented with a vast array of shapes and forms for tiny, emerging multicellular creatures. Some had spinal cords shaped like an X, Y, or Z. Some had radial symmetry like a starfish. By accident one had a spinal cord shaped like an I, with bilateral symmetry, and it was the ancestor of most mammals on Earth. So in principle the humanoid shape with bilateral symmetry, the same shape that Hollywood uses to depict aliens in space, does not necessarily have to apply to all intelligent life.

Among invertebrates, only sponges are not built on any symmetrical plan; all cnidarians (polyps, jellyfish, sea anemones) have radial symmetry; molluscs, arthropods (insects, crustaceans, centipedes, etc.), and all vertebrates have bilateral symmetry, with only some subtle, or hidden asymmetries. Differences in facial features, which hand we prefer to use (very few people, no more than about 1 percent, are ambidextrous), and the placement of internal organs are the most obvious examples of asymmetry in humans.