• Ludwig, W. 1932. Das Rechts-Links Problem im Tierreich und beim Menschen. Springer, Berlin. 496 pp. (still the most comprehensive survey of asymmetries in animals & plants ever published; book is sadly out of print (a 1970 paperback reprint was published) . . . be prepared to brush up on your German!)
• Ludwig, W. 1936. Bestimmung und Vererbung der Asymmetrieform (Rechts-Links-Problem). Verhandlungen der Deutschen Zoologischen Gesellschaft 9: 21-73. (an addendum to the above)
• Huxley, J. S. 1932. Problems of Relative Growth. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London. 276 pp. (a fascinating overview by the pioneer of allometric methods for studying growth; includes some striking examples of allometric differences between sides)
• Neville, A. C. 1976. Animal Asymmetry. Edward Arnold, London. 60 pp. (A short but wide-ranging discussion of asymmetry issues from molecules to man; unfortunately literature citations were kept to a minimum)
• Corballis, M. C., and M. J. Morgan. 1978. On the biological basis of human laterality: I. Evidence for a maturational left-right gradient. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2: 261-336. (a rather bizarre hypothesis - only one among many - regarding the development of human brain asymmetry; most notable for the extensive collection of commentaries solicited by the editors from a great many biologists, which note the widespread occurrence of asymmetries throughout the animal kingdom . . . compact and entertaining reading)
• Galloway, J. W. 1989. Reflections on the ambivalent helix. Experientia 45: 859-872. (mainly reviews helices, refers briefly to situs inversus & cellular asymmetry (as cytoplasmic inheritance), but a nice review of handedness terminology (appendix 2))
• Bock, G.R. and J. Marsh eds. 1991. Biological Asymmetry and Handedness. Wiley & Sons, New York. 344 pp. (contributed chapters on a wide range of topics from a CIBA Foundation Symposium; includes transcripts of lively discussions following each presentation . . . a nice inside view of some of the issues still under debate)
• Palmer, A. R. 1996. From symmetry to asymmetry: Phylogenetic patterns of asymmetry variation in animals and their evolutionary significance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 93:14279-14286. (an overview of the apparent interplay between ontogeny and phylogeny of conspicuous asymmetries, supported by tabulations of phylogenetic transitions among different asymmetry states in the Metazoa)
  (a full-text version may be downloaded from here)
• Palmer, A. R. 2004. Symmetry breaking and the evolution of development. Science 306:828-833. (presents strong evidence that a) genetic assimilation ('phenotype-precedes-genotype') is almost as common an evolutionary pathway to fixed asymmetry as conventional evolution ('genotype-precedes-phenotype'), b) homology of form (left-sided heart in vertebrates) does not require homology of development, and c) development of a left-sided heart has become more canalized throughout vertebrate evolution)
  (download full-text pdf file from Science website: 176K)
  (If you are unable to access this reprint from the Science site, request a pdf from me)
  (download supplementary information file here; 271K)
• Palmer, A. R. 2005. Antisymmetry. pp. 359-397 (a wide ranging survey of examples, and a review of the developmental and evolutionary significance, of antisymmetry: a pattern of asymmetry variation where dextral and sinistral forms are equally frequent within a species)
  In: Variation (B. Hallgrimmson & B. K. Hall, eds) Elsevier (the book may be ordered here or you may request a pdf proof copy from me)

• Freeman, G., and J. W. Lundelius. 1982. The developmental genetics of dextrality and sinistrality in the gastropod Lymnaea peregra. Wilhelm Roux's Archives of Developmental Biology 191: 69-83. (a fine piece of genetic and developmental sleuthing into the control of coiling direction in gastropods)
• Govind, C. K. 1989. Asymmetry in lobster claws. American Scientist 77: 468-474. (summarizes some fascinating work on the developmental control of lobster claw asymmetry)
• Brown, N. A., and L. Wolpert. 1990. The development of handedness in left-right asymmetry. Development 109: 1-9. (suggest molecular/cytoplasmic asymmetries play a crucial role in the specification of left-right differences during development)
• Beddington, R. 1996. Left, right, left... turn. Nature 381: 116-117. (summarizes results of three reports in the same issue "that dramatically demonstrate left-handed gene expression in mammalian and amphibian embryos")
• Levin, M. 2005. Left-right asymmetry in embryonic development: A comprehensive review. Mechanisms of Development 122(1): 3-25. (A detailed survey of the developmental-genetic control of left-sided heart development in vertebrates)

• Hubbs, C. L., and L. C. Hubbs. 1945. Bilateral asymmetry and bilateral variation in fishes. Papers from the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters 30: 229-311. (still the best single summary of fish asymmetries)
• Dill, L. M. 1977. 'Handedness' in the Pacific tree frog (Hyla regila). Canadian Journal of Zoology 55: 1926-1929. (includes many references to behavioral handedness in other vertebrate taxa)
• Norberg, R. A. 1977. Occurrence and independent evolution of bilateral ear asymmetry in owls and implications on owl taxonomy. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B 280: 375-408. ("ear asymmetry has evolved independently in at least 5 lines")
• Policansky, D. 1982. The asymmetry of flounders. Scientific American 246: 116-122. ("Asymmetry in flounders may have a genetic controlling factor"; however, genetic effects are surprisingly weak)
• Parenti, L. R. 1986. Bilateral asymmetry in phallostethid fishes (Atherinomorpha) with description of a new species from Sarawak. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 44: 225-236. (the bizarre, asymmetrical pelvic clasping structures in males of these fish are a sight to behold; also one of the few well-corroborated cladograms to illustrate multiple independent evolution of directional asymmetry via antisymmetrical ancestors; see also Parenti (1989) ibid 46:243-277 or check out the full phylogeny with asymmetry states mapped on it.)
• Hopkins, W. D., and R. D. Morris. 1993. Handedness in great apes: A review of findings. International Journal of Primatology 14: 1-25. (don't forget . . . humans are great apes)
• Juste, J., and C. Ibanez. 1993. An asymmetric dental formula in a mammal, the Sao-Tome island fruit bat Myonycteris brachycephala (Mammalia, Megachiroptera). Canadian Journal of Zoology 71: 221-224. ("Here we report the exceptional finding of the first asymmetric dental formula in a heterodont mammal" . . . and it exhibits antisymmetry to boot!)
• Perelle, I. B., and L. Ehrman. 1994. An international study of human handedness: The data. Behavior Genetics 24: 217-227. ( . . . let us not forget, however, that left-handers are but one tail of a continuous, normal distribution of behavioral handedness where right-handedness is the mean; see 'Human handedness and health' below)
• Milinkovitch, M. C. 1995. Molecular phylogeny of cetaceans prompts revision of morphological transformations. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 10: 328-334. (includes a discussion of the evolution of facial and skull asymmetry in cetaceans)
• Jefferies, R. P. S., N. A. Brown, and P. E. J. Daley. 1996. The early phylogeny of chordates and echinoderms and the origin of chordate left-right asymmetry and bilateral symmetry. Acta Zoologica (Stockholm) 77: 101-122. (concise summary of a highly controversial hypothesis about vertebrate origins from echinoderm (calcichordate) ancestors, however it provides a very readable account of a some of the exceedingly peculiar asymmetrical development of amphioxus (the presumed sister group to the vertebrates) which may ultimately help us understand why vertebrates retain some most peculiar traces of asymmetry - for example, human handedness and brain asymmetry; see also Gee, H. 1996. Before the Backbone. Views on the Origin of the Vertebrates. Chapman & Hall, London. 346 pp. for an overview of the development of Jefferies' ideas.)

• Simonson, J. L., and P. Steele. 1981. Cheliped asymmetry in the stone crab, Menippe mercenaria, with notes on claw reversal and regeneration. Northeast Gulf Science 5: 21-30. (convincing evidence that stone crabs are initially right-handed and that left-handers represent crabs whose asymmetry has been reversed following autotomy and regeneration)
• Jones, D. S., and R. W. George. 1982. Handedness in fiddler crabs as an aid in taxonomic grouping of the genus Uca (Decapoda, Ocypodidae). Crustaceana 43: 100-102. (tabulation of handedness frequencies in many species, including those few that exhibit directional asymmetry compared to the antisymmetry typical of the genus)
• Abby-Kalio, N. J., and G. F. Warner. 1989. Heterochely and handedness in the shore crab Carcinus maenas (L.) (Crustacea: Brachyura). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 96: 19-26. (a good place to start into the literature on claw asymmetry in crabs)
• Govind, C. K. 1989. Asymmetry in lobster claws. American Scientist 77: 468-474. (summarizes some fascinating work on the developmental control of lobster claw asymmetry)
• Newman, W. A., and R. R. Hessler. 1989. A new cirriped from an abyssal hydrothermal spring: The "missing link" between the Brachylepadomorpha and Verrucomorpha. Transactions of the San Diego Society for Natural History 21: 259-273. (ontogeny of skeletal-plate asymmetry in the bizarre, lopsided verrucomorph barnacles)
• Labadie, L. V., and A. R. Palmer. 1996. The allometry of heterochely in the mud shrimp Neotrypaea californiensis (Decapoda: Thalassinidea: Callianassidae): Inferring claw function and developmental processes from morphometric variation. Journal of Zoology 240:659-675. (a landmark morphometric study of allometric variation in the stunningly asymmetrical and peculiarly shaped claws of mud shrimp)

• Yonge, C. M. 1953. The monomyarian condition in the Lamellibranchia. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinborough 62: 443-478. (also discusses evolution of bivalve shell asymmetry)
• Flower, R. H. 1955. Saltations in nautiloid coiling. Evolution 9: 244-260. (notes that both dextral and sinistral forms arose approximately equally frequently in fossil nautiloids)
• Nicol, D. 1958. A survey of inequivalve pelecypods. Journal of the Washington Academy of Science 48: 56-62. (an overview of bivalve shell asymmetry)
• Vermeij, G. J. 1975. Evolution and distribution of left-handed and planispiral coiling in snails. Nature 254: 419-420. (reviews literature on coiling reversal in gastropods)
• Freeman, G., and J. W. Lundelius. 1982. The developmental genetics of dextrality and sinistrality in the gastropod Lymnaea peregra. Wilhelm Roux's Archives of Developmental Biology 191: 69-83. (a fine piece of genetic and developmental sleuthing into the control of coiling direction in gastropods)
• Gould, S. J., N. D. Young, and W. Kasson. 1985. The consequences of being different: Sinistral coiling in Cerion. Evolution 39: 1364-1379. (a large tome on subtle differences in the few known sinistral specimens of otherwise dextral species)
• Morris, N. J. 1990. Early radiation of the Mollusca. Pp. 73-90 in Major Evolutionary Radiations, P. D. Taylor and G. P. Larwood, eds. Clarendon Press, Oxford. (discusses possible evolutionary origins of gastropod torsion, shell coiling & shell asymmetry)
• Johnson, M. S., B. Clarke, and J. Murray. 1990. The coil polymorphism in Partula suturalis does not favor sympatric speciation. Evolution 44: 459-464. (. . . . well, does it or doesn't it?)

• Fursich, F. T., and T. Palmer. 1984. Commissural asymmetry in brachiopods. Lethaia 17: 251-265. (twisted 'smiles' in fossil brachiopods)
• Masaki, S., M. Kataoka, K. Shirato, and M. Nakagahara. 1987. Evolutionary differentiation of right and left tegmina in crickets. Pp. 347-357 in Evolutionary Biology of Orthopteroid Insects, B. Baccetti, ed. Horwood, Chichester, UK. ("right over left is the rule in crickets [Gryllidae], while the opposite is the case in katydids [Tettigoniidae]" when singing)
• Heming, B. S. 1993. Structure, function, ontogeny, and evolution of feeding in thrips (Thysanoptera). Pp. 3-41 in Functional Morphology of Insect Feeding, C. W. Schaefer and R. A. B. Leschen, eds. Entomological Society of America, Lanham, MD. (only the left mandibular stylet is present in all "4,500 species in nine families and two suborders")

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(revised March 29, 2006)