The Golden Section in Nature: Animals
There are many examples of the Golden Section or Divine Proportion in nature.
Below are just a few:
The eye, fins and tail all fall at golden sections of the length of a dolphin’s body. The dimensions of the dorsal fin are golden sections (yellow and green). The thickness of the dolphin’s tail section corresponds to same golden section of the line from head to tail.
The spiral growth of sea shells provide a simple, but beautiful, example.
Every key body feature of the angel fish falls at golden sections of its width and length. The nose, tail section, and centers of the fins of the angel fish fall at first (blue) golden sections. The second golden section (yellow) defines the indents on the dorsal and tail finds as well as the top of the body. The green section defines the marking around the eye and the magenta section defines the eye.
The eyes, beak, wing and key body markings of the penguin all fall at golden sections of its height.
All the key facial features of the tiger fall at golden sections of the lines defining the length and width of its face.
The body sections of an ant are defined by the golden sections of its length. Its leg sections are also golden sections of its length.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Nature is a creative researcher
Would like to know about your observations on phi in animals.
Okay, I have been looking into this for a few days now, and I have some issues. I want to believe this, but it looks like you are choosing the points within animals and plants in an arbitrary way. For example, with the penguin, why are those particular points chosen? Is it because they match with the ratio? Also, the human, the point between the legs, and then the point in the midsection, I am not sure what significance these points have from a visual standpoint that they would be chosen, other than the fact that they correlate to the golden ratio.
Am I missing something? I was initially excited about this, but I am starting to get sceptical.
That’s a very valid question, and in this and many areas of life we should question and seek our own answers to grow in our understandings. The points do not seem arbitrary to me though. I’ve simply overlayed a golden ratio grid or ruler and it generally falls at key features of the animal in question. With humans, it falls not just at the abdomen in general but at the navel. I’ll update these photos with some that use grids from the PhiMatrix golden ratio software I developed years after this page was first published back in 1997. For now, here are other examples of the golden ratio in life and art and a better illustration of the golden ratio in the penguin body. Please explore and come to your own conclusions.
i agree
It doesn’t matter what points he chooses…what matters is that it is there. Nature is extremely redundant, but hides it well.
I dont get it… you just picked specific points of the animal and specific animals why cant you just choose a bunch of flowers and see what they get? if you may post it to me please, thanks for reading this its very appreciated from everyone hope you have a nice day!
A little background on this page: When I first became aware of the appearance golden ratio in living creatures, it seemed that it worked with every animal I found. The images on this page are the very first rough versions done back in 1997 before I developed PhiMatrix golden ratio software to make this type of analysis easy. So, in response to your email, I just sat and thought for a minute to think up another animal to put to the test. A koala bear was the first thing to come to mind and sure enough its facial features show the golden ratio too, as illustrated above. I’ll update this page with other images using the phi grids from PhiMatrix, and you can try PhiMatrix for free as well. As to flowers, plants in general have much more variation in their shapes and proportions. Plants demonstrate Fibonacci numbers in their spirals and petals, but are too diverse even within a single type to demonstrate that they conform to the golden ratio.
PLEASE HELP ME TO FIND A TOPIC FOR MY MATHS PROJECT..
See http://www.goldennumber.net/school-projects-interviews/ for some ideas on phi topics. See also http://www.phimatrix.com for applications of the golden ratio.
Hi Gary,
Would just like to express my appreciation for this site and your kind responses to the questions. I am an artist and have been focusing on my composition and this site has really helped me get a grasp on multiple aspects at once.
The diagrams , breakdown and comments section are top notch.
I am inspired to find other parallels to this system such as cooking, or martial arts(?)
Regards,
Can you speak to how this relates to music?
Thank you,
Michele
BTW, I am hearing music…and no I don’t have any mental health issues.
Certainly. See the Music page.
your website helped me alot. it had alot of info