Talk:Flatworm

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Does anyone have examples of flatworms that have multiple openings to their guts (as is referred to in the page)? --Mperkins 03:44, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

This should probably be incorporated into an external link at some point. http://www.pbs.org/kcet/shapeoflife/video/tv_high.html?ep_hunt_explo2_mov_hi 06:30, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Done. But what exactly is the point of the video? Since when does Wikipedia link to videos?Dragix 16:07, 17 April 2006 (UTC)Dragix

In acoelomate flatworms, now thought to be unrelated to the Platyhelminthes... --unsigned comment

What? Aren't they the same thing? I think this needs changing. --unsigned comment
Josh corrected this on 01:36, 2006 January 7. --TheLimbicOne(talk) 09:57, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

New species of flatworm found: Imogine lateotentare. They have an interesting way of reproduction. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/what-lurks-beneath--fleshsucking-sex-fiends/2006/01/20/1137734154394.html Since I'm not into this kinda stuff I'll leave it up to others if this actually needs mentioning and if so, how to go about it. --Mais

Contents

[edit] Pronunciation?

Is it pronounced "platyhelminteez" or "platyhelmintheez"? Twilight Realm 02:56, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

The latter. Cerealkiller13 05:09, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Respiration

like all other animals, flatworms do take in oxygen

I may be wrong, but I thought adult cestodes (and many other gut-dwelling animals) were effectively anaerobic.


[edit] Notes on Flatworms

1) pppooooooooooooooo on roads, and reflects relative importance to humans, not relationship among the worms. Modern classification of flatworms exclude Acoela and Xenoturbellida (both now phyla in their own right), while the remaining worms are grouped into roughly 14 high-order taxa. I'll see if I can find a good classification on the net.

2) The theory of biochemical memory in flatworms is long since abandoned - the results were misinterpreted. Contracting when hit by light isds,jxbz,mv blcknbxcvnbmcmcllllllllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadfgdf"more worried" due to higher stress hormone levels, and would react with alarm to weaker stimuli than non-stressed worms.

The flatworm "biochemical memory" is today abandoned as a scientific theory, but has almost become an urban myth, and is still often found in non-scientific contexts.

3) Yes, parasitic flatworms do as a rule use anaerobic respiration. This includes some forms which live in aerated environments such as the bloodstream.

[edit] Feeding

Does ANYONE know what flatworms eat? I've been trying for ages to find out, and I was a bit dissapointed to not find the answer under the feeding section. Egregius 15:31, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I read on www.mcwdn.org/Animals/Flatworm.html, that flatworms eat other small worms, insects, and microscopic matter.- Erika

[edit] Excretion?

Platyhelminthes use flame cells for excretion. Perhaps that would be a nice addition to the page? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 132.236.121.153 (talk) 23:56, 11 May 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Hancockanus???

Is the type of worm that fences with its penis really called Hancockanus? Or is that some sort of sick, perverted, joke?66.157.207.150 (talk) 02:05, 15 January 2008 (UTC)ShokuMasterLord

It's had that name since 1876. I presume that someone named Hancock was being honored by the name, and it may well be that the name was applied before the behavior was observed. -- Donald Albury 02:21, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Plagarism of (not by) Wikipedia!

I've just been given a book for my birthday, about marine life, called "The Deep" (Margaret Keenan, Taj Books, 2007).

The page on flatworms starts:

The flatworms (Phylum Platyhelminthes, Greek "platy": flat; "helminth": worm) are a phylum of relatively simple soft-bodied invertebrate animals. With about 25,000 known species they are the largest phylum of acoelomates. Flatworms are found in marine, freshwater, and even damp terrestrial environments. A troublesome terrestrial example is the New Zealand flatworm, Arthurdendyus triangulatus, which rapidly colonized large areas of Ireland and Scotland since its unintentional introduction in the 1960s and has since destroyed most of the indigenous earthworms.[citation needed] Most flatworms are free-living, but many are parasitic. There are four classes: Trematoda (flukes), Cestoda (tapeworms), Monogenea, and Turbellaria.

This is an almost exact copy of the Wiki text, and they didn't even remove the [citation needed] tag! (The citation was added to the Wiki article on 14:49, 24 July 2007 Rursus).

I have subsequently checked several of the articles in the book, and they were all almost word-for-word copies of the Wiki articles of the same name. (And more importantly: I checked the article histories and found that the copied text was older than the publication date of the book).

I'll send this info to Wikipedia's copyright team shortly (and possibly to the book's publishers as well). Wardog (talk) 16:53, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Note that as all text in Wikipedia is licensed under the GFDL, anyone may freely copy and modify the text, even for commercial purposes. The book may be in violation of the terms of the GFDL in that all GFDL-licensed material copied and/or modified must also be made available under the GFDL, i.e., the book must state clearly that the material is licensed under the GFDL. -- Donald Albury 22:12, 9 February 2008 (UTC)