PLATYHELMINTHES
PLATYHELMINTHES About Platyhelminthes
Platyhelminthes are an ancient phylum and there is little information into how it evolved. Their evolutionary history remains unknown because soft-bodied organisms do not fossilize well. Scientists believe that the first flatworm began to evolve 550 years ago.
Platyhelminthes otherwise known as “flatworms” have a wide variety of species within the phylum and have positive and negative effects on those who interact with them. Some examples of Platyhelminthes include Tapeworms, Flukes and Planaria.
The unifying characteristics of the flatworm include that they are mostly parasitic, have bilateral symmetry, their nervous system includes a brain (cephalization) and they lack a cavity between the body wall and digestive tract.
The key structural features of flatworms include the ocellus (eye spot), the vas deferens, the muscular organs (in some), seminal vesicle and the cilia.
Feeding varies between the classes of Platyhelminthes; most flatworms are parasitic and feed off the blood, tissue fluids and pieces of cells from a living host. The carnivorous flatworms, which are less common in phylum Platyhelminthes, feed off of smaller organisms.
Members of the phylum Platyhelminthes have no formal respiration system but they do take in oxygen.
Flatworm’s internal transport includes a gastro vascular cavity, which has many branches, which are only a short distance away from every cell in the body.
Flatworms can both reproduce sexually and asexually through either the sexual process called mating or through the asexual process called binary fission.
The flatworm responds to stimuli is with their nervous system. The nervous system consists of 2 nerve cords connected by a tissue that runs the length of the body.
Flatworm means of locomotion vary from species to species. Some move by contracting the muscles in their body wall whereas others move with their cilia on their underside.
Flatworms are fairly complex compared
Platyhelminthes are an ancient phylum and there is little information into how it evolved. Their evolutionary history remains unknown because soft-bodied organisms do not fossilize well. Scientists believe that the first flatworm began to evolve 550 years ago.
Platyhelminthes otherwise known as “flatworms” have a wide variety of species within the phylum and have positive and negative effects on those who interact with them. Some examples of Platyhelminthes include Tapeworms, Flukes and Planaria.
The unifying characteristics of the flatworm include that they are mostly parasitic, have bilateral symmetry, their nervous system includes a brain (cephalization) and they lack a cavity between the body wall and digestive tract.
The key structural features of flatworms include the ocellus (eye spot), the vas deferens, the muscular organs (in some), seminal vesicle and the cilia.
Feeding varies between the classes of Platyhelminthes; most flatworms are parasitic and feed off the blood, tissue fluids and pieces of cells from a living host. The carnivorous flatworms, which are less common in phylum Platyhelminthes, feed off of smaller organisms.
Members of the phylum Platyhelminthes have no formal respiration system but they do take in oxygen.
Flatworm’s internal transport includes a gastro vascular cavity, which has many branches, which are only a short distance away from every cell in the body.
Flatworms can both reproduce sexually and asexually through either the sexual process called mating or through the asexual process called binary fission.
The flatworm responds to stimuli is with their nervous system. The nervous system consists of 2 nerve cords connected by a tissue that runs the length of the body.
Flatworm means of locomotion vary from species to species. Some move by contracting the muscles in their body wall whereas others move with their cilia on their underside.
Flatworms are fairly complex compared