Symmetry is so elementary to multicellular life that it may be straightforward to miss. In truth, symmetry solely appears to face out within the notable cases the place it’s fairly clearly damaged, corresponding to within the case of the male fiddler crab, which possesses one smaller claw and an reverse claw that’s many occasions bigger. On this quick video, Laila Moubayidin, a Royal Society College Analysis Fellow on the John Innes Centre in Norwich, England, discusses why symmetry got here to dominate life on Earth, and what number of advanced life kinds, corresponding to people, transitioned from radial to lateral symmetry. Moubayidin additionally breaks down how life kinds can evolve to interrupt symmetry as soon as they’ve established it, how some animals possess totally different levels of symmetry throughout a lifetime, and the various methods by which people lack good symmetry.
