Turing patterns with pentagonal symmetry

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2002 May;65(5 Pt 1):051913. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.65.051913. Epub 2002 May 16.

Abstract

We explore numerically the formation of Turing patterns in a confined circular domain with small aspect ratio. Our results show that stable fivefold patterns are formed over a well defined range of disk sizes, offering a possible mechanism for inducing the fivefold symmetry observed in early development of regular echinoids. Using this pattern as a seed, more complex biological structures can be mimicked, such as the pigmentation pattern of sea urchins and the plate arrangements of the calyxes of primitive camerate crinoids.