ArticleBiology direct2012
The manoeuvrability hypothesis to explain the maintenance of bilateral symmetry in animal evolution.
Article in Biology direct, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Exploring the roles of conserved context-dependent cis-regulatory elements (cdCREs) in multicellularity, human health and disease.The FEBS journal · 2025Review
- Subword symmetry in natural languages.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Multi-View Fusion-Based Automated Full-Posture Cattle Body Size Measurement.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Growth produces coordination trade-offs inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Article
- Identification of approximate symmetries in biological development.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2021Article
- Evolutionary transitions in learning and cognition.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Five Breakthroughs: A First Approximation of Brain Evolution From Early Bilaterians to Humans.Frontiers in neuroanatomy · 2021Article
- Demystification of animal symmetry: symmetry is a response to mechanical forces.Biology direct · 2017Article
- Fin modules: an evolutionary perspective on appendage disparity in basal vertebrates.BMC biology · 2017Article
- A new paradigm for animal symmetry.Interface focus · 2015Review
- Division of labor in hand usage is associated with higher hand performance in free-ranging bonnet macaques, Macaca radiate [corrected].PloS one · 2015Article
- The Conscious Nematode: Exploring Hallmarks of Minimal Phenomenal Consciousness inInternational journal of psychological researchArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe overwhelming majority of animal species exhibit bilateral symmetry. However, the precise evolutionary importance of bilateral symmetry is unknown, although elements of the understanding of the phenomenon have been present within the scientific community for decades. PRESENTATION OF THE HYPOTHESIS: Here we show, with very simple physical laws, that locomotion in three-dimensional macro-world space is itself sufficient to explain the maintenance of bilateral symmetry in animal evolution. The ability to change direction, a key element of locomotion, requires the generation of instantaneous "pushing" surfaces, from which the animal can obtain the necessary force to depart in the new direction. We show that bilateral is the only type of symmetry that can maximize this force; thus, an actively locomoting bilateral body can have the maximal manoeuvrability as compared to other symmetry types. This confers an obvious selective advantage on the bilateral animal. IMPLICATIONS OF THE HYPOTHESIS: These considerations imply the view that animal evolution is a highly channelled process, in which bilateral and radial body symmetries seem to be inevitable.
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