Symmetry in biology Most radially symmetric animals are symmetrical about an axis extending from the center of the oral surface, which contains the mouth to the center of the opposite, , end. Radial symmetry is especially suitable for sessile animals such as the sea anemone, floating animals such as jellyfish, and slow moving organisms such as starfish. Animals in the phyla Cnidaria and Echinodermata are radially symmetric, although many sea anemones and some corals have bilateral symmetry defined by a single structure, the siphonoglyph. Many flowers are radially symmetric or actinomorphic. Roughly identical flower parts – petals, sepals, and stamens – occur at
Chordate from at least as early as the Cambrian explosion. Hemichordata, which includes the acorn worms, has been presented as a fourth chordate subphylum, but it now is usually treated as a separate phylum. The Hemichordata, along with the Echinodermata (which includes starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and crinoids), form the Ambulacraria, the sister taxon of the Chordates. The Chordata and Ambulacraria form the superphylum Deuterostomia, composed of the deuterostomes. Attempts to work out the evolutionary relationships of the chordates have produced several hypotheses. The current consensus is that chordates are monophyletic, meaning that the Chordata include all and only the