Biological Applications of Symmetry for the Classroom - Abstract
Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science
Pages 399–399
Abstract
Many organisms exhibit a superficial level of bilateral symmetry. However, upon closer examination, many individual characteristics exhibit some levels of asymmetry. Some well studied examples include tail feathers in bird, wing venation patterns in insects, and human facial characteristics. In many cases, the degree of asymmetry is thought to be a measure of developmental precision, thereby allowing an assessment of the degree to which the genome can resist the variability present in the environment.