Starfish go five ways, but two ways when stressed

A typical starfish has five-sided symmetry. With no clear head, the starfish can move in any direction, led by any one of its five arms. If you were feeling particularly cruel, you could fold one up in five different ways, so each half fitted exactly on top of the other. We humans, like many other animals, have only two-sided symmetry. We’re ‘bilateral’ – our right half mirrors our left, and we have an obvious head.