They are very flat, lack the well-developed head with elaborate tentacles and sensory structures, and have no feathery gills on their upper surface. While sometimes confused with sea slugs, flatworms are much simpler animals. Some worm’s bodies have muscular edges that they can ripple to travel more rapidly, and they can even swim short distances in a current by undulating their body edge. Once the flesh is predigested and liquefied, it is pumped into the gut for further digestion and distribution.įlatworms crawl or glide over the bottom by beating microscopic hair-like projections called cilia against a trail of mucus they lay down. They subdue prey by wrapping their flexible body around it, pumping digestive enzymes onto the prey (or into its shell if it is a snail or oyster) with a tube-like projection of the mouth (pharynx). They locate prey using chemical sensors at the head end of the body, either special sensory patches or folds along the front edge of the body and tiny antennae-like projections just behind the edge. Most feed on smaller worms, snails or bivalves. The gut only has one opening, so what cannot be digested has to be eliminated through the mouth opening.įlatworms may only reach 1 to 2 inches in length, but are voracious hunters and scavengers on the reef. They lack a circulatory system as well, but the gut is highly branched so that digested nutrients are circulated to all parts of the body. Their bodies are so flat that oxygen can penetrate the tissues without gills or other respiratory structures. They are characterized by extremely flat, unsegmented bodies, with a simple head end. Flatworms belong to a distinctive phylum of their own.
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