Submitted by kisamoto t3_yfz6cp in explainlikeimfive
Lithuim t1_iu6094j wrote
Bilateral (humans) or radial (jellyfish) symmetry helps keep you balanced so you can move with purpose, and reduces the needed genetic complexity.
You don’t need totally separate developmental pathways for your left arm and your right arm, just a genetic copy-paste.
You’ll just swim in circles with one large fin and one short fin.
Both the vertebrates and the arthropods settled on bilateral symmetry long ago, so practically all land animals are symmetrical like that.
Radial symmetry is more popular among the jellyfish/anemone/sea urchin types in the ocean.
Asymmetric anarchy like bivalves and sponges still has a few very ancient holdouts.
BryKKan t1_iu9r08k wrote
Just to nit-pick, there's no need for any "copy-paste". All¹ of our cells contain our entire genome.
¹Well, almost all. Red Blood Cells eject their nucleus, and thus don't retain the DNA when mature.
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