Sister blog of Physicists of the Caribbean in which I babble about non-astronomy stuff, because everyone needs a hobby

Wednesday, 19 July 2017

The weird world of the hammerhead worm

Nature continues being weird and icky.

The worms' mouths are not located on their oddly shaped heads. Instead, they're right in the middle of their bodies, on their undersides, said Peter Ducey, a biologist at The State University of New York, Cortland, who researches these creatures. When the worms attack their prey, they first excrete glue-like mucus to adhere their soon-to-be dinner to their bodies. They then excrete digestive enzymes, reducing their prey to goo, which the flatworm can then suck up with its mouth (which also doubles as its anus).

The heads are dotted with chemoreceptors (a sense organ) and organs that scientists call eyes, though it's not really clear how much light those "eyes" can detect, Ducey said. No one knows for sure why the worms' heads are so weird-looking, but it could have to do with the positioning of these sensory organs, he said.

"If you have a big, broad head and you have chemical receptors on both sides of it, you can compare the right side and the left side," Ducey said. If one side detects more earthworm scent, he said, it could signal the worm to crawl in that direction.

https://www.livescience.com/59838-hammerhead-worm-with-mustache-captured-video.html

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