Asymmetrical animals are surprisingly uncommon

[@joshsbecker]

Blink twice if you're being held captive by Wikipedia

[@existereOracle]

did you know that when you blink, each eye winks slightly out of sync?

[@Alice_Sweicrowe]

​@@existereOracleKind of obvious, but I'm sure most won't think of it.

[@midloran]

​@@existereOraclewrong

[@fixpontt]

@@existereOracle Asymmetrical blinkings are surprisingly uncommon

[@VaxisPraxis]

If HG Modernism her self narrates it I'll watch it forever

[@Nvr4getGachi]

you look like an elf that just crawled out of the forest, broke into a cottage and started infodumping about animals to us for ten minutes and i love it

[@badoem5353]

I think you meant introverted helf that really loves animals but yes, potato tomato

[@i_love_bad_videos]

A sexy elf at that

[@chemputer]

I just burst out laughing at the mobius strip animation. Never change, Wikipedia.

[@MySerpentine]

Mobius crab.

[@morrisstanforth3278]

bonus fact: Latin has two words for left; laevus meaning left and clumsy as well as sinister meaning left and evil. Most chiral chemicals use laevus to denote left-handedness in the form of the prefix levo-. This isn't consistent through all of science where a lot of biological terms such as sinistromanual meaning left-handed use the prefix sinistro-. bonus bonus fact: Latin has only one word for right; dexter meaning right and skillful. Dextro- is a prefix derived from this and is used in one of my favourite pairs of words: dextrosinistral (meaning moving from right to left) and sinistrodextral (meaning moving from left to right). These words are commonly used to describe writing systems. Isn't language fun.

[@dranorter]

Thank you, I studied Latin for several years and never was told about Laevus.

[@usmh]

Viewing left-handedness suspiciously probably comes not from the hands, but the eyes. People have a tendency to direct their gaze in different specific directions dependent on what they're thinking (imagining an image, imagining a sound, remembering an image, etc), and the directions are flipped in the left-handed. While most people don't consciously know about this quirk, we can all intuitively notice if someone is looking in a weird direction when speaking, and for the left-handed, when they recall something visual they look in the direction most people look when making something up. Not a great recipe for trust.

[@sam_c95]

L- and D-nomenclature for chiral chemicals isn't particularly useful for chemists, and is more often used in biological contexts simply due to the historical use of these labels persisting. L- for laevorotary and D- for dextrorotary, referring to how polarised light is rotated by the isomers. This system, however, doesn't describe the actual configuration in 3D space, so among chemists it is most common to refer to chiral molecules as R- or S-isomers which is a system which systematically describes the molecule's 3D structure. R- for rectus and S- for sinister, referring to the result of applying the Cahn-Ingold-Prelog naming rules. And yes language is fun! It helps when teaching science to be able to break down what complex technical words actually mean. Here's a question I don't know the answer to: What are the linguistic origins of laevus/sinister/dexter/rectus? They're all Latin, right? Two lefts and two rights? I know the chemical difference between their uses, but what's the difference between them in terms of linguistics?

[@morrisstanforth3278]

​@@sam_c95 "rectus" comes from the Latin "rectus" meaning straight or upright and also righteous. Interestingly it comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root as "right" as in on the right-hand side; though "rectus" comes through Greek instead of Proto-Germanic for "right". "dexter" comes from Latin through PIE, "sinister" and "laevus" come from Latin although more than that is not known, they do both have cognates in Greek though. Antother vaguely adjacent fact: "Austria" comes from Old High German "Ostarrihhi" stemming from Proto-Germanic "austraz" meaning eastern and "rihhi" meaning realm. "austraz" comes from PIE "*h₂éwsteros" meaning in the direction of dawn. "Australia" comes from Latin "australis" meaning south itself coming from Latin "auster" meaning southern wind. Now it gets a bit iffy because the research suggests that "auster" also comes from "*h₂éwsteros". I did spend a bit of time trying to figure out why this is but beyond a paper saying "it may still be a cognate" (De Vaan, Michiel 2008 page 64) there is nothing else on it in English and available for free.

[@vaclav_fejt]

"...that's why we don't have asymmetrical aircraft or cars." My mind went immediately to Blohm & Voss and their crazy projects. But there's more: A motorcycle with a side car is definitely asymmetrical, and it behaves differently in turns (ask Isle of Man TT racers). Italian WWII fighter plane Macchi MC.200 and derivatives had a 20cm longer left wing, to counteract the asymmetrical thrust of the propeller (other aircraft just had pilots to counteract with controls, because the asymmetrical wing had some stall weaknesses).

[@Internetzspacezshipz]

A lot of prop planes have a vertical stabilizer with a slight angle to one side to counteract the torque of the prop/engine.

[@davidegaruti2582]

Also all road cars are internally assymetrical , given there is a driver side and a passanger side ... F1 cars and dragsters instead are symmetrical cars

[@vaclav_fejt]

@@davidegaruti2582 That's a packaging thing. One driver, one liver. I understod that the focus were the elements influencing motion of a given object.

[@rylandrc]

I thought of motorcycles as well, but they aren't cars.

[@dxb338]

they arent aircraft or cars, but there are several varieties of outrigger boats that are asymmetrical. The sailing ones are especially strange since the outrigger needs to always needs to be on the downwind side of the craft to stabilize it, so they're double ended, and they move the mast, sail and steering apparatus to change which end is the front.

[@denim_ak]

There’s a mission in Hitman where a guy with Situs Invertus needs a rare inverted heart and has betrayed the organization to get it. I always assumed they made that condition up.

[@HGModernism]

I just like the idea that ANYONE could have it and realistically not know unless they had some procedure.

[@Giguv05]

Same, but also wouldn't most people notice their heartbeat can't be felt on their left side, but can on their right at some point in their lives?

[@curtisnixon5313]

My school friend's dad had this. He found out in the army since he got malaria in the Pacific

[@pdorism]

I'm pretty sure he could just use a normal heart. Just rotate it 180°

[@tyranisoar7401]

@@Giguv05heartbeats can be felt across your entire body, and the heart is, all things considered, barely off-center. this hypothetical would not happen.

[@mastershooter64]

I love how you already assume people have read the title and have seen the thumbnail and waste no time with a 30 second long intro

[@nyet_maker7948]

Very pleasing to the brain

[@Gunbudder]

most airplanes are very slightly asymmetrical to eliminate natural frequencies that might tear the plane apart during flight

[@macon8638]

Super interesting wtf

[@mastershooter64]

wait how does that work?

[@RhetoricaRhamnusia]

6:25 The fiddler crab/Möbius strip GIF is somewhat undercut by the fact that the crab never gets to the other side-only half the animation is present! A travesty!

[@tissuepaper9962]

"other side"? 🧐🔍

[@liambohl]

She shows a full loop of the animation! It never gets "to the other side" because this möbius strip is a transparent wireframe. But you can see the crab change directions twice.

[@Tardsmat]

Just for the record since a lot of people probably don't know what a "cavitation bubble" is: what the shrimps do is move their claw so fast in the water that it creates a huge pressure difference. In some areas the pressure gets super low, which lowers the boiling point of the water so far that it vaporizes and creates a bubble of steam. That bubble then collapses again moments later, which creates the shockwave. Pretty crazy stuff.

[@anastasiabrusturan4465]

Thanks for explaining! I'm one of the people that didn't know this before

[@ferrandiaz4359]

Now I have to go find the crab mobius strip gif for my collection

[@BlockoStudios]

I love this format. The sidetracks, the tone, the purity of your interest - it's like having a conversation. 👏🏽

[@heinzaballoo3278]

0:02 Took a minute but I actually remembered some! 1. Shelled snails, the protected part is spiral shaped 2. Lobsters, some have a single crusher claw. 3. Narwhals! The tusk is of-center

[@orterves]

By that logic, any person with a snaggle-tooth

[@iriswaters]

​@@orterves I mean, if the snaggletooth is 3ft long, spiraled, and juts out straight from the jaw.... Yes?

[@orterves]

@iriswaters hot

[@shinysands]

@@ortervesyeah but every narwhal is like that

[@spacedonut8157]

I thought of snails and lobsters. Also flounder. The sea yearns for asymmetry.

[@theangrysuchomimus5163]

To answer the begining question: cross beaks (start symetrical), flatfish (start symetrical), sponge and snails (start symetrical)

[@SteveJubs]

There was also that cardinal they photographed in Pennsylvania with bilateral gyndromorphism. It was half red and half white!

[@brain_snakes]

4:30 I love that the military has trouble with their sonar due to incessant shrimp gunfire.

[@jjrussell_gallery]

The legs of the Wild Haggis (Haggis scoticus) are shorter on one side, allowing them to rapidly traverse steep mountainsides while staying upright. There are two morphs: right legs longer than left, and left legs longer than right. Only morphs of the same type can mate-otherwise they topple off the mountain-and offspring are always the opposite morph to promote colonization & prevent inbreeding.

[@Ribulose15diphosphat]

Wait this exists ? In Bavaria this is said about Goats, but as a Joke.

[@jjrussell_gallery]

@@Ribulose15diphosphat In the Swiss Alps, it is said about men. This is why tailors ask "Do you dress to the left or right?" when fitting men's trousers.

[@Jarf]

An interesting point to note, we are still to discover how high a haggis can fly and what mechanisms allow for flight

[@DanteYewToob]

I like the theory that Marlin never became a female because he never accepted Corals death… he was never ready to move on, or continue living. He was basically stuck since that day and has treated Nemo like a helpless baby and refuses to acknowledge or accept that he’s growing up. Perhaps after the movies he will eventually move on, become a new female and proper mom to Nemo as he grows up. I dunno. It’s just a theory that I like. It’s realistic that after a tragedy some people put their lives on hold and don’t ever unpause… they just stay in that state until something or someone helps to pull them out of it.

[@HGModernism]

Damn... I need to rewatch Finding Nemo as an adult. As a kid I thought Marlin was annoying and preferred Dory... somehow?

[@miniraptor3211]

I guess in mentioning asymmetrical aircraft, there are other examples but they're not as obvious. British aircraft in the 50s and 60s had asymmetry in cockpit placement (most obvious in the Sea Vixen) and, the most interesting in my eyes, Italian aircraft in WW2 had asymmetric wings. One wing is slightly longer than the other and that's meant to offset the turning moment caused by the propeller and make flight easier.

[@thomasstewart9752]

I would assume the whale asymmetry in coloration is so they can look down by tilting without losing the benefits of countershading

[@Rationalist411]

There are common aircrafts that are asymmetrical: most helicopters. The tail has a secondary rotor to counteract the torque of the main rotor. It technically can be made symmetrical and integrated into the tail (called a Fenestron), but commonly aerospace engineers decide to mount it to one side in either a push or pull system. Generally, the Fenestron comes at a weight cost, which can either be a good thing or bad depending on the helicopter being designed. There's also other ways to solve the torque problem using the Coandă effect or having multiple main rotors which spin in opposite way and counter act each others torque but still push thrust down.

[@rococoro12345]

9:40 please make the owl facts video, im sure it would be awesome. Also, great channel!

[@yucannthahvitt]

8:55 Florida fact. Limpkins also have a beak that is curved to one side. It's not as noticeable as the wrybill though.

[@mastershooter64]

Physics also has asymmetry! Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking! I have no idea how that works except that's how the higgs boson came to be or something like that. I think spontaneous symmetry breaking is also a thing in statistical mechanics

[@Secondt2none]

You definitely fell down many rabbit holes researching for this video, haha

[@normanicole4714]

Today I learned that fiddler crabs have one large claw so they can navigate mobius strips. Knowledge aquired. 🦀 🧠 💥

[@Comfyest]

"Doggy DnD: Diarrhea N' Dehydration" got me chuckling so hard

[@SEThatered]

She doesn't know about Burt Rutan aircrafts...

[@freedomofmotion]

I love that you can barely contain your glee. Watching you explain things is like sitting with a good friend who's just read about something cool.

[@brunnomenxa]

3:27 There's another one called Rutan Boomerang which is pretty famous and I'm pretty sure there are more examples.

[@audiemauk1064]

Love your Dark Souls poster!

[@WPope]

Love how you just switch from biology to a Blohm & Voss plane

[@weiyin8046]

6:35 omg i remember seeing that animation on the mobius strip page and wondering why the hell they used a crab!!

[@yaoellassar]

>spaceship graveyard yo holdup

[@LadyTink]

why unlisted? feels like a found a secret video

[@Paulsinke]

You could count humans having a dominant hand as asymmetry, as the right arm of a righthanded adult is slightly more developed than the left. Thanks for all your work, I love this type of video!

[@malorika]

Damn, I was insecure that my face was a bit bigger on the left. Nver realized everyone had it!

[@TheresaKadish]

I just found your channel and have now watched every video. I am extremely impressed. I love your cadence! This video is unlisted, but linked in the end screen of your smell video. I assume this was intentional?

[@HGModernism]

This and the witches one were my first videos and looking back I'm kind of embarrassed about the quality and the editing. I unlisted them so they aren't recommended to folks as a first impression of my channel

[@piripiro]

​@@HGModernismwelp, the witches one you published (and it's a banger) ! Maybe consider reviving also the other one? Pretty pls?

[@HGModernism]

@@piripiro I have too many new videos I want to make! This one will stand unaltered as a awkward reminder of my progress 😬

[@Roaxial]

​@@HGModernism hello :) this was recommended to me as a first impression of your channel

[@sambojinbojin-sam6550]

Me too.

[@j-cee2737]

Mythical algorithm pull.

[@airplaneB3N]

Initial observation: "Symmetrical." Upon closer inspection: "Asymmetrical."

[@skybluskyblueify]

The crab at ~5:50 has a purple manta ray with a black head on its shell. I guess the rays were a sports team and the crab was a fan?

[@carlday30]

A modern example of an asymmetric aircraft is the Rutan Model 202 Boomerang. It's fascinating; check it out!

[@Khaleb_0]

Love that Dark Souls 1 map rendition back there.

[@Dude30977]

I heard somewhere mothers look into the left eyes of their babies more because of the position they hold them in most often when feeding and it creates empathy or something like that and this is how we can more easily build empathy with other people by looking into their left eye when interacting. Maybe this has something to do with our faces being offset to the left and maybe why it’s more noticeable when we’re babies.

[@Maskawanian]

I really enjoy your content, your delivery is perfect, look forward to followups!

[@encrustingacro]

Correction: Sea anemones are actually not sessile, as they are able to move around using their "foot". A better example would be a coral.

[@jacobscott2473]

I had a friend in high school whose heart was on the opposite side of his body. He wore an emergency pendant to notify anyone giving first aid of this fact (for cpr or de-fib)

[@randomuser5443]

Most single engine prop planes have a slight offset in their tail to handle the torque of the engine. Also most tanks have their cannon slightly offset for the loader

[@ApotheosisTK117]

I've always wondered if I've known or met somebody with situs inversus. It's like an invisible unicorn. I might have met one but I'll never know...

[@eyobwalid2332]

You look like you’re fighting back a laugh from a funny joke your remembered from 3 days ago the entire video; so cheerful

[@calvindorn1609]

"Tusk anomalies in narwhals (Monodon monoceros) from Greenland" by Eva Garde and Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen (published in 2022) mentions in the abstract that the tusk is most likely used in male-to-male hierarchical competitions. Additionally, "The longer the better: evidence that narwhal tusks are sexually selected" by Zackary A. Graham et al. (published in 2020) makes similar claims about the tusk being used for male competitions, but the authors do not disregard other possible uses for the tusks. The 2014 article that suggested males rubbed tusks as a way of exchanging information was the only paper I could find that strongly supported the information exchange theory. Other papers only mentioned the information exchange theory as being a possibility but were more likely to support the male hierarchical competition theory.

[@joshsbecker]

I'm sure they are transferring information, but unsure of what information, and I have no evidence. However, competition is an exchange of information. Consider rams butting heads; They are teaching each other a lesson. Anyways, the horn is connected to the rest of the narwal and transmits vibrations, so the next logical step is brain monitoring. After collecting more narwals.

[@Billy-qo7ts]

its so fun to watch these videos of yours!!

[@Lunarl4ndr]

Mine was narwhal, flounder and aardvarks. Aardvarks have asymmetric toe numbers from front to back. Wasn't sure if that truly counted, but I do think it's a very rare mutation.

[@Fateofmoose]

Instantly subbed, great video! Informative and fun, hope there’s more to come

[@HuckleberryHim]

I could only think of crossbills, gastropods, flatfish, and narwhals. While you were talking about the snail-eating snake though, I did remember that ducks have corkscrew-shaped reproductive anatomy, and females have spirals that are opposite to the males. Apparently this makes it harder for females to be involuntarily fertilized (which ducks have a proclivity for). There are also extinct examples: Tsaidamotherium is an extinct bovid whose one horn was just a big, dome-shaped boss, while the other was a tiny little nub at the edge of it. Odobenocetops was a walrus-looking whale with one tooth being much bigger than the other. I'm sure there are other extinct examples. Lokiceratops was described recently, but it is debated how asymmetric its frill really was. The holotype specimen is very asymmetric, but might not be representative of the real animal. Most reconstructions are a tad asymmetric.

[@cassidyjones2730]

uhhhh three outwardly asymmetrical animals: garden snails, crossbill birds, and odobenocetops the extinct tusked whale

[@randomuser5443]

Any chance you played Jurassic park builder?

[@cassidyjones2730]

@randomuser5443 no I haven't, why?

[@olgierdwisniewski7063]

I have a cool fact about symmetry. There is a plant hopper Issus coleoptratus that developed cog teeth connecting his jumping legs to make sure he always jumps straight.

[@Vagabond_Manny]

Very informative and entertaining video specially the dog picture (u know the one) but, i really love the design of what im guessing its an apron, it has a very very nice green and a really cool pattern, love the fit!

[@daninjamonkey1]

that crab/mobius loop "fact" is the most Wikipedia thing ever

[@idknemore525]

Yoooooo. You got a print of Laudate Solis too? Dope.

[@loofy530]

Is Hagrid's motorcycle classified as an aircraft?

[@deadalus1991]

Is that a Dark Souls I map in the background??

[@TeacupTSauceror]

me, looking at the picture of the owl and nodding so no-one knows i can't see where the ears are

[@ThatGeezer]

And of course there are the two species of Haggis - which have longer legs on one side than the other, to facilitate movement around the steep slopes of the Scottish Highlands. Since the two species have their longer legs on opposite sides, hybridisation is almost unknown... 😉

[@Rawi888]

Algo blessed me with this video. Also please do a video on owls.

[@Sodier402]

Another example of positive frequency dependent selection: snail twist handedness

[@alexanderander7495]

As someone who has been to New Zealand, I very highly recommend it. There are so many cool and unique things geographically and biologically there because of its "youth" as a landmass and "remoteness" from everywhere else

[@ValekHalfHeart]

There are deep-sea anglerfish called Leftvents whose anuses are offset to the left side of their body.

[@Vlow52]

Symmetry has a simple rational sense of an extra part for everything that has something like a neuron cells. If one functioning organ stops working from DNA breaking or just an injury, the mirrored one is there to continue the existence. This concept is also may be used for the future surgeries, for example bio-printing a second small heart from patient cells and implant it as a secondary pump if the main one goes out to save some time before the full transplant.

[@janLipija]

for the question at the beginning caribou, snails, and lokiceratops that took me a while lol

[@bugjams]

The thrip thing is interesting, it's not classified as a Hemipteran (a large order of insects with a single, stabbing proboscis for a mouth), but they are hypothesized to be closely related. Perhaps they're on the evolutionary path to losing their vestigial mandible and developing a truly Hemipteran-style mouthpart?

[@theaveragecomment1014]

Hey just so you know when you said 'honey badgers' you used an image of a european badger by mistake

[@TecHippy]

Hey, calling my face uncomon is one of the nicer things anyone's ever said about it

[@lubricustheslippery5028]

I have a couple more examples Ephemeroptera larva have asymetrical maxillary. There are two species that differ by being left or right maxillary being the biggest. Syrphids have twisted and assymetrical genitals

[@kaldogorath]

Hey, hey Miss Modernism! BONUS FACT: The wrybill's bill curves that way to be chirally compatible with the snails they eat, and they also use it to reach under the rounded stones from riverbeds to grab insect larvae.

[@sabnox9869]

I always found it strange how the blow hole of a sperm whale wasn't central, this was a good video, I shall have to watch more videos on this channel.. Edit: there are no other videos

[@HGModernism]

Just added a new one!

[@edwindungdung1998]

I clicked on this video expecting a quest.

[@Eggmatter]

I would love to see a video on owls. Honestly, I wish I'd gone into ecology rather than medical biology. Love your vids, keep it up queen, all the best

[@bobisnotaperson]

I intentionally made my sona's eyes lopsided to make it cuter :D

[@willd4686]

Unexpected little bear

[@JH-lo9ut]

Flounders has to be the kings of asymmetry.

[@thesecretthirdthing]

Almost exclusively insects i can think of. Before watching i have no idea how a barn owl is asym that alone is wild

[@doggfite]

Are there several of your videos that are unlisted? There seems to be one that is referenced in your outtro of the witches video that i can't find. Also, this video and the witch video are unlisted and I only found them because of end card links in other videos. Just a heads up in case they aren't supposed to be unlisted, or the remaining links to them are unintentional. Anyway, all the videos were great, loved all the animal ones especially! I second the recent comment still awaiting the owl video!

[@HGModernism]

Mentioned in another comment, but this and the witches ones were my first videos and looking back I'm kind of embarrassed about the quality and the editing. I unlisted them so they aren't recommended to folks as a first impression of my channel, but I'll probably re-list them when I have more videos so they are less likely to be recommended

[@doggfite]

​@@HGModernismoh, I see, well for whatever my opinion is worth, I actually really like the longer intro and I'm super glad I watched the videos in reverse chronological order (except narwhals which was the video the algorithm recommended first and then asymmetry and witches were out of order due to linking). It kind of felt like a crescendo rather than a diminuendo (with a, somehow, half-hour long baroque piano solo in the middle), from several short, mostly singular videos to these more broad spanning and a bit longer videos. I get it though, it's hard not to be your own biggest critic, but they are wonderful videos and they are lovely. I personally am here for every 2 hour Sarah Z video, 4 hour Folding Ideas video, and whatever insanity HBomb is doing. So, I'll happily take an 11 minute HGModernism video in addition to the 6s and 5s :)

[@GoodrichthysEskdalensis]

My favourite asymmetrical animals are definitely the weird early echinoderm groups like the stylophorans and cinctans.

[@professionalloser207]

Is that the vertical dark souls map in the background?

[@Y81715]

Good vid. Could easierly be lengthier, enjoyed a lot. Get a quality mic to suit your quality research.

[@duncanchin]

I just found an old picture and my face was so funny as a baby

[@lpil]

That was such a fun video!

[@Puddlewiggle]

Another video where I'm still left not understanding the asymmetry of that garment or what that garment even is. It's an evil plot cuz it keeps me coming back, hoping to find out.

[@FindTheFun]

I'm pretty sure sponges and corals are made up of lots of tiny animals and those animals are symmetrical. I could be wrong though.

[@refindoazhar1507]

Since you mentioned several asymmetry that aren't externally visible, you should've mentioned that internal organs are highly asymmetrical. I only know about internal organs of human, but seeing the degree of asymmetry in things like our heart, liver, and gastrointestinal system, i think it's safe to guess that at least most mammals also have asymmetrical organs.

[@Aaron-jj9no]

Speaking of cars and aircraft, the M1 Abrams is also quite asymmetrical :-)

[@systemG3000]

Fascinating topic!

[@JamieBainbridge]

I will be the first spherically symmetric vertebrate. Hershey's Peanut Butter Cups please sponsor me.

[@DustinHarms]

OWLS! I wish I had more to add, but....nah, that's it.

[@brandonmoisesblandonflores1483]

I thought the "held captive" meme was a joke

[@griffin0000]

hello. i'm ur new subscriber. thx for subtitle cuz i'm deaf.

[@hedgehog3180]

9:31 Are owls really an example of external assymetry? If we believe it is rare due to mate selection then doesn't the fact that you can't see the ears of an owl due to the feathering effectively make them internally assymetric?

[@altadie]

Did you just unlist your older videos :( ? I just found your channel, amazing content 👍

[@michaelthierry2556]

Did lake Tanganyika's tie-in get lost in the edit?