Life Science

20 March 2008

Phylum Platyhelminthes- Flatworms

• bilateral symmetry
• cephalization
• incomplete gut
• acoelomates
• non-segmented

Three groupings:
Turnbellaria- free living
• Planarians- primitive animals, since they have a brain (or the
beginnings of a brain), you begin to see male and female
flatworms. Males will fight over a female with their penis by
fencing.

Trematodes- flukes-parasitic
• Human blood fluke- Schistosoma, (which causes
Schistosomiasis) live in the bellies of mammals.
• When the Aswan Dam was built on the Nile, rates of
Schistosoma larva increased. It spreads by skin contact with the
affected water.

Cestoda- tapeworms – parasites

• Some have self-contained sexually reproducing animal, can
produce up to 10,000 eggs, which go through metamorphic
steps and become adults eventually
• Lingula- broad fish tapeworm can cause lack of respiration in the
host creature

They do have mesoderm tissue for making muscles, so they move using their
muscles.

Phylum Nematoda
• bilateral symmetry
• cephalization
• non-segmented roundworms
• psydocoelomate
• complete gut

This is one of the most abundant phylum but not the most diverse.

Some species of nematodes:

• Ascaris Lumbricoides- human roundworm
• Necator Americanus- hookworm, can cause anemia
 • Enterobius Vermicularis- pinworms 30% of all U.S. kids have pinworms. 18%
of adults have them
• Wuchereria Bancrofti- Elephantiasis worms get into the lymph system and
cause extreme swelling in the connective tissue, spread by a tropical
mosquito

Phylum Rotifera
• bilateral symmetry
• cephalization
• psydocoelomate (along with the above class are the psydocoelomates)
• complete gut
• non-segmented in some texts, segmented in others

They reproduce by unfertilized eggs which are all male, then fertilized eggs, which
last through the winter. The fertilized eggs hatch, and are females.