Worm Madness, Part 3

There are 5 basic types of worms:

* Flatworms. Those are flat because they have no circulatory or respiratory system. As such,they use diffusion to allow oxygen to pass to all of their cells. They include tapeworms, flukes, and planaria. Interestingly enough, while their reproduction is very different from that of humans (they're hermaphrodites, for example), most of the genes related to reproduction are the same.

* Acoelomorphs. See Worm Madness, Part 2. They are most interesting for having no gut.

* Nematodes. It is said that if you removed every living thing but nematodes from the Earth, one could still see the location of all animals and plants by the concentration of nematodes. Nematodes are hugely successful and most of them are parasitic. The free-living nematode C. elegans has not only had its entire genome sequenced, but also had every one of its neurons mapped.

To be continued...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worms

-Brown Rhino