Phylum Platyhelminthes Essay

403 Words2 Pages
Phylum Platyhelminthes Flatworms and Planaria You may not know them, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re virtually everywhere. Anywhere freshwater, marine or even any damp environment may contain them. There’s over 25,000 different discovered species of them, and they range from the size of less than one millimeter, to longer than a whole meter. These parasitic beings have evolved attachment organs, which let them attach to the insides of animals and 1 out of 4 people in the world. There are four classes to phylum Platyhelminthes. The Trematoda are parasite worms to mostly mollusks and vertebrates. They are also known as Flukes. The Turbellaria are free living carnivores, and scavenge for food. The Monogea are small parasitic flatworms, and usually have an oval shape. The Cestoda live in the digestive track of various animals. They are also known as tape worms. Phylum Platyhelminthes isn’t very helpful to humans, but does cause sickness to them and their pets. There is a tapeworm diet that supposedly works, which involves killing off the tapeworm when you have reached the weight loss you’ve wanted, but isn’t recommended by many experts. Organisms in the phylum Platyhelminthes breathe through their cilia and anus. Some have the ability to sexually reproduce, while some asexually reproduce by fragmentation and regeneration. The same opening takes in food and gets rid of waste, so they can’t feed, digest, and get rid of waste at the same time. They are the simplest animals to have a centralized nervous system. They do have sensory organs. They don’t have an open circulatory system. These organisms live in marine and fresh water environments, or any moist environments. They either live inside an organism and feed off of it as a parasite, or scavenge for food as a carnivore. The E. granulosus class cestoda is a parasite that lives in the

More about Phylum Platyhelminthes Essay

Open Document