Fluke Planarian Tapeworm’s sucker and hooks Phylum Platyhelminthes- Flatworms Fluke Planarian Planarian Tiger Flatworm Tapeworm’s sucker and hooks

-Platyhelminthes consists of the unsegmented flatworms, which includes both free-living and parasitic species. They have bilateral symmetry, and can move by using layers of muscles, or in some species, by gliding along a slime trail using cilia (like tiny hairs). -Flatworms are slightly less developed than segmented worms due to their open circulatory system and incomplete digestive system. Instead, flatworms absorb nutrients through their skin. Some flatworms have primitive light-sensing "eyes" that allow them to move either towards or away from light, while other species have different types of sensors on their bodies, including chemical, balance, and water movement receptors. -Most species of flatworms reproduce either sexually or asexually. -Flatworms have an open circulatory system. This means that their blood does not flow through vessels (veins), their blood surrounds their organs. Oxygen and carbon dioxide move in and out of the body through their skin.

-Platyhelminthes are an ancient phylum, but practically nothing is known of their evolutionary history because they have very soft bodies which do not preserve well as fossils. -Platyhelminthes live nearly everywhere, on land, in both fresh and marine waters as well as inside other animals. Most of the free living species are marine with only a small number inhabiting fresh water and very few living on land. Parasitic species normally move between different habitats as they change life cycle stages and hosts.

Surgeon removes a 19 ft. tapeworm!!

How does it get in there in the first place? Eggs hatch as tiny creatures that lie on grass. Most of them die, but one in about one in one thousand live and may be swallowed by pigs or cows. Once in the cow or pig it burrows into their flesh turning into something called a bladder worm. Bladder worms can live for about a year. If a human eats the infected meat, it can turn into a tapeworm. It attaches on the walls of the intestines and absorbs the nutrients from the host’s food. RELAX--- This is very rare!!!!! Also-cooking meat would kill any parasite!