Interesting Worm Trivia

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&...

UV radiation on earthworm

In this study, we evaluated the phototoxic effects of UVR in sunlight and its possible mechanism of action by using earthworm as an alternative model because earthworm skin contains several biomolecules (tetraene and triene sterol) similar to human beings.

http://www.supraconsciousnessnetwork.org/downloads/ITI.pdf

Parasite Consciousness

Pg. 213 – An earthworm contains nerve cells distributed throughout its entire body. If its primitive brain is removed it can still feed and burrow, though more slowly, as well as enter into coitus, and learn a way through a maze.

Ascaris, an intestinal parasitic worm, is a very simple lifeform relative to man, possessing only 162 brain cells, yet it can learn, does possess a memory, and can act on information that it receives.

http://www.pa.msu.edu/~sciencet/ask_st/052495.html

Why do worms grow back when you cut them in two?
(Lansing State Journal, May 24, 1995)

The common earthworm is a relatively simple organism.  It lives a simple life crawling through the ground eating rotting organic matter.  It has relatively simple digestive, circulatory, and nervous system.

One of the most obvious characteristics about the earthworm is that its body is segmented.  Often we refer to the location of internal organs in a worm by the number of segments from the mouth they are located.  For instance, the pharynx is located three to five segments from the mouth.  After about the 21st segment from the mouth many of the internal organs of the earthworm repeat.  These organs repeat about every twenty-one segments.  The longer a worm is, the more sets of the same organs it can have.

As long as a worm is cut so that it has at least one set of these repeating organs, the pieces of the worm can heal and survive.

[Not sure if the below is from the same link above or from another source, sorry. It was from my earlier days of collecting information.]

If a mother is infected, then Toxoplasma often will infect the developing fetus. Most infections will be nonpathogenic but many will cause significant morbidity and death. Stillbirths and spontaneous abortions are usually the cause. This is especially true in sheep, where spontaneous abortions can reach epidemic propotions. Severe damage is usually caused by CNS disorders due to the rapidly dividing parasites. It is for this reason that pregnant mothers and cats are a bad mix.

Members of this group of aquatic cestodes are known as broad fish tapeworms. The species D. latum is a pathogen of humans in northern communities wherever the ingestion of undercooked fish is common. Some small coastal towns in Scandinavia can be 100% infected.