what is the function of the rhabdites in flatworms?
470524
Characteristic of the epidermis of turbellarians are rhabdites, which are curved rods embedded in the epidermis.   Little is known about the function of rhabdites.   However, since they discharge to the exterior when the animals are stressed, a protective function is suggested.
602782
Porcine Ascarias\n\n \n\n\n\nAscaris suum, commonly known as roundworm, is the largest gastrointestinal parasite of the pig. From a respiratory disease standpoint, roundworms are important because part of their life cycle involves migration of the immature larvae through the lungs of the pig. This larval migration can result in large areas of the lung parenchymal tissue being damaged, with subsequent development of aerobic or anaerobic bacterial infections. As larvae migrate through the lungs, they destroy alveoli; they may cause a local eosinophilic infiltration that sometimes manifests in allergic reactions; and they cause a non-productive cough referred to as "thumps" or "thumping," also known as verminous pneumonia. \n\nBacterial super-infections may also occur, resulting in edema and emphysema, along with a tremendous cellular reaction. Mycoplasmal pneumonia is also not an uncommon sequel to a severe case of ascariasis.
80155
In mitosis the nuclear membrane breaks down and the centrosome nucleated mictrotubules can interact with the chromosomes to build the mitotic spindle. The centrosome nucleates and organizes microtubules. It plays a central role in mitosis, and in making cilia and flagella.\n\nInterestingly, centrosomes are not required for the progression of mitosis. When the centrosomes are irradiated by laser, mitosis proceed normally with a morphologically normal spindle. However, acentrosomal cells lack radial arrays of astral microtubules. They are also defective in spindle positioning and cytokinesis. The function of centrosome in this context seemed to ensure the fidelity of cell division, rather than directing it. Cells that have lost their centrosomes arrest in the following cell cycle. It is not yet clear whether this is because the centrosome plays a role in cell cycle progression or whether the arrest is the result of a generic stress response.\n\nWhen the nematode C. elegans egg is fertilized the sperm delivers a pair of centrioles. These centrioles will form the centrosomes which will direct the first cell division of the zygote and this will determine its polarity. It is not yet clear whether the role of the centrosome in polarity determination is microtubule dependent or independent.
498668
The trap constricts tightly around the insect and secretes digestive juices, much like those in your stomach. It dissolves the soft inner parts of the insect but not the\ntough, outer part called the exoskeleton. At the end of the digestive process, which takes from five to twelve days, the trap reabsorbs the digestive fluid and then reopens. The leftover parts of the insect, the exoskeleton, blow away in the wind or are washed away by rain. The time it takes for the trap to reopen depends on the size of the insect, temperature, the age of the trap, and the number of times it has gone through this process.
548944
Tapeworms help you lose weight.
1176802
The annelids (the animal phylum that includes earthworms) have a closed blood/vascular system but they use extracellular digestion, thus the blood is used as a respiratory fluid but not for nutrient delivery or waste transport. Annelids are segmented worms with a body made of repeating segments. Typically each segment has a pair of nephridial tubules to filter waste from the coloemic fluid. The real specialty of this group is that they use the coloemic fluid as a specialized hydraulic drive. The body segments are separated by septa which are used as valves to allow peristaltic movement and burrowing.
212380
Reproduction is usually sexual. Males are usually smaller than females (often very much smaller) and often have a characteristically bent tail for holding the female for copulation. During copulation, one or more chitinized spicules move out of the cloaca and are inserted into genital pore of the female. Amoeboid sperm crawl along the spicule into the female worm.\n\nEggs may be embryonated or unembryonated when passed by the female, meaning that their fertilized eggs may not yet be developed. In free-living roundworms, the eggs hatch into larva, which eventually grow into adults; in parasitic roundworms, the life cycle is often much more complicated.
349428
One of the features taken as evidence that two organisms share a common ancestor is the possession of a number of unique traits that are found in those organisms, and are not found in other groups of organisms.\n\nThe following is a (partial) list of the characters shared by all chordates (the phylum to which vertebrates belong)\n\n- Possession of a notochord (which is a dorsal axial rod of vacuolated muscular cells surrounded by a connective tissue which forms in the blastocyst from the roof of the archenteron).  The notochord functions as a skeleton and resists deformation when muscles contract.\n\n- Pharyngeal gill slits (originally for filter feeding, also for respiration)\n\n- Dorsal hollow nerve cord derived by invagination of ectoderm along the dorsal midline, sometimes with anterior expansion (brain)\n\n- Postanal tail (major locomotory organ in most chordates)\n\n- Subpharyngeal gland, which is secretory tissue in the endoderm of the pharynx floor (endostyle in protochordates, thyroid gland in 'higher' chordates)\n\n- Ventral heart\n\n- Segmented body with segmented axial muscles, axial skeleton, gill arches, nerves, aortic arches\n\n- Ectodermal ciliated canal (endocrine function, pituitary in 'higher' chordates)\n\nIn addition, there are several features unique to the the vertebrates:\n\n- Neural crest cells (arising from neural groove, become melanocytes, sensory neurons etc.)\n\n- Endoskeleton of bone and/or cartilage\n\n- 3 part brain\n\n- Muscular pharyngeal pump\n\n- Jointed internal skeleton (unique in Animal Kingdom)\n\n- Unsegmented gonads\n\n- Usually with a skeletal cylinder protecting the dorsal hollow nerve cord (i.e. vertebrae)\n\n- Pharynx is chiefly respiratory\n\n- Gas bladder for buoyancy control and respiration (in most)\n\n- Paired jaws (in most)\n\n- Paired appendages (in most)\n\n- Cranium protecting the brain (poorly developed in some)\n\nAll of these features are shared between all the vertebrates, from nasty lamprey and disgusting hagfish to cute kitty cats and arrogant humans to giant blue whales and extinct ankylosaurs.\n\nThe possession of all of these features suggests that these organisms share a common ancestor from which they inherited all these traits.
332957
1. Porifera (sponges), Cnidaria (jellyfish, coral polyps etc.), Ctenophora (comb-jellies), Placozoa (Trichoplax)\nIf we are speaking only about animals with distinct tissues, we must exclude Porifera.\n\n2. Mesoderm gives rise to muscle, connective tissue and circulatory system. So there are no specialized muscle cells (only "skin-muscle" cells) and no circulatory system in those animals. There are other parts that will be missing from those animals but not due to the lack of mesoderm - e.g., organ systems as such (even flatworms have defined digestive and excretory systems, for example).
513854
1. amnionic membrane, contains, pressure, shock, movement, temperature\n2. planceta\n\nFunction of the Planceta\n1. oxygen, nutrients\n2. wastes (like carbon dioxide)\n3. can't rmeber this one sorry\n4. plancenta does that
619928
1."If the cell is disturbed, one can observe the discharge of the outer coating of trichocysts. These spine-like structures, analogous to nematocysts (the stinging cells of jellyfish), can fire out from the cell in a fraction of a second at the slightest physical or chemical stimulus. Discharged trichocysts may remain attached at their base; until they detach, the cell resembles a disheveled porcupine. The exact function of trichocysts is not known but it is thought they may be used for capturing prey"\n\n1."Upon mechanical or chemical stimulation, these trichocysts can be discharged (as shown on the model) to produce long, sticky protein threads that remain attached to the organism.  It is believed that these structures can be used for defense."\n\n\n2."The paramecium moves by swimming. For the paramecium to move forward the cilia beat on an angle, backward. This means that the paramecium moves by spiralling through the water on an invisible axis. For the paramecium to move backward, the cilia simply beat forward on an angle. If the paramecium should run into a solid object the cilia change direction and beat forward, causing the paramecium to go backward. The paramecium turns slightly and goes forward again. If it runs into the solid object again it will repeat this process until it can get past the object. "
1136913
Oh well, with that information it's easy to identy. \n\nThe  creature is Biplaium kewense. They are commonly known as "worm killers".  See the link below for some photos\n\nAs others have guessed it is a planarian. Worm killers are an exotic pest species imported from Viet Nam in the soil of potted plants. They are carnivorous and hunt earthworms and small insects. They immobilise their prey by coating them with that slime they secrete and then stick a tube into them and suck their insides out.\n\nBTW, well spotted that it uses it's head like a sensor. That is exactly what they do. There are pits under the head that act like a nose that enables the animal to track earthworms, slugs and other prey animals.
633136
Not much. They don't have "guts" like more advanced animals. They do have specialized layers of cells that do different jobs. They have a thin layer of clear "skin" that has nerve cells underneath it, so they can sense prey and predators. They also have a hollow cavity with digestive cells (sort of like a very primitive stomach) inside them. They also have muscles that control their "hydrostatic skeleton" -- basically, another hole that fills up with water, and the muscles make to pulsate so they can swim.\n\nMost of a jellyfish is water. Water is what fills up the body and gives it shape. Outside the water, it's just a blob.
168158
Many parasites can be found in the human respitatory system.  I'm talking worms and amoebas, not just bacteria and viruses.  Paragonium westermanni is a fluke that lives as an adult in the lungs.  Acanthamoeba sp. are Protozoic amoebas that can live in the lungs, as well.  Many nematodes (round, unsegmented worms) such as Ascaris lumbricoides, Necator americanus, Ancyclostoma duodenale, and Strongyloides stercoralis begin as eggs in the intestine, hatch into larvae, burrow through your intestine, into your blood stream, and enter your lungs where they are coughed up, swallowed, and return to the intestines where they live out their life cycles.  (That's a long way to go just to get to where you already are!)  While these guys are in the lungs they can produce pneumonia like symptoms.\n\nIf you want bacteria, some common causes of pneumonia and respiratory tract infections include:  Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria sp, Haemophilus influenza and H. parainfluenza, and Klebsiella pneumonia, to name a few.\n\nYeasts include Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans. \n\nThis list is incomplete at best.  Depending on your immune status and location, the occurences of these organisms vary.
163415
If by "red worms" you mean earthworms of the species Eisenia foetida (commonly used for composting), they mostly eat any plant or animal particulate matter that is small enough to enter their mouths; other species (including another common earthworm of genus Lumbricus) can use their sucker-like mouth to ingest relatively large pieces of food. They also ingest live microorganisms along with the detritus. \nEarthworms are part of the soil mesofauna, and usually they don't feed on whole plant parts (such as leaves) but rather on small pieces of particulate matter that have already been generated by other animals of the macro- and mesofauna, especially plant residues (coffee grounds and tea leaves included). They ingest these along with soil inorganic particles (that's why they are important for mixing and carrying organic matter into deeper soil layers).
140735
http://sloscience.hypermart.net/Biology/Frog%20Dissection/dorsal%20muscles.htm
517061
Animals are a major group of organisms, classified as the kingdom Animalia or Meta­zoa. In general they are multi­cellular, capable of locomotion, responsive to their environment, and feed by consuming other organisms. Their body plan becomes fixed as they develop, usually early on in their development as embryos, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on.\n\nThe word "animal" comes from the Latin word animal, of which animalia is the plural, and ultimately from anima, meaning vital breath or soul.\n\nCharacteristics\nAnimals have several characteristics that set them apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and most protists. They are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls.\n\n\nStructure\nWith a few exceptions, most notably the sponges (Phylum Porifera), animals have bodies differen­tiated into separate tissues. These include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and a nervous system, which sends and processes signals. There is also typically an internal digestive chamber, with one or two openings. Animals with this sort of organization are called metazoans, or eumetazoans when the former is used for animals in general.\n\nAll animals have eukaryotic cells, surrounded by a characteristic extracellular matrix composed of collagen and elastic glycoproteins. This may be calcified to form structures like shells, bones, and spicules. During development it forms a relatively flexible framework upon which cells can move about and be reorganized, making complex structures possible. In contrast, other multicellular organisms like plants and fungi have cells held in place by cell walls, and so develop by progressive growth. Also, unique to animal cells are the following intercellular junctions: tight junctions, gap junctions, and desmosomes.\n\nReproduction and development\nNearly all animals undergo some form of sexual reproduction. Adults are diploid or polyploid. They have a few specialized reproductive cells, which undergo meiosis to produce smaller motile spermatozoa or larger non-motile ova. These fuse to form zygotes, which develop into new individuals.\n\nMany animals are also capable of asexual reproduction. This may take place through parthenogenesis, where fertile eggs are produced without mating, or in some cases through fragmentation.\n\nA zygote initially develops into a hollow sphere, called a blastula, which undergoes rearrangement and differentiation. In sponges, blastula larvae swim to a new location and develop into a new sponge. In most other groups, the blastula undergoes more complicated rearrangement. It first invaginates to form a gastrula with a digestive chamber, and two separate germ layers - an external ectoderm and an internal endoderm. In most cases, a mesoderm also develops between them. These germ layers then differentiate to form tissues and organs.\n\nAnimals grow by indirectly using the energy of sunlight. Plants use this energy to convert sunlight into simple sugars using a process known as photosynthesis. Starting with the molecules Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Water (H2O), photosynthesis converts the energy of sunlight into chemical energy stored in the bonds of Glucose (C6H12O6) and releases Oxygen (O2). These sugars are then used as the building blocks which allow the plant to grow. When animals eat these plants (or eat other animals which have eaten plants), the sugars produced by the plant are used by the animal. They are either used directly to help the animal grow, or broken down, releasing stored solar energy, and giving the animal the energy required for motion. This process is known as glycolysis.\n\n\nOrigin and fossil record\nAnimals are generally considered to have evolved from flagellate protozoa. Their closest living relativ