Directory of Platyhelminthes Resources

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The phylum Platyhelminthes comprises about 20,000 species. They are commonly known as flatworms and include free-living aquatic flatworms (class Turbellaria), as well as the mostly parasitic flukes and tapeworms (classes Monogenea, Trematoda, and Cestoda). Collectively, they are primitive organisms that are flat, soft-bodied, and symmetrical. Recent molecular studies suggest that the Platyhelminthes as a whole may have arisen as two independent groups from different ancestral groups. If this is correct, most of the flatworms may belong to the Lophotrochozoa, a large group within the animal kingdom that includes molluscs and earthworms, while the rest are much more primitive.

Subcategories

• Cestoda
• Trematoda
• Turbellaria

Resources in This Category

• Flatworm: Procotyla fluviatilis

  http://fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/flatworm.htm
  Photographs and information on these organisms.

• Flatworms: British Marine Life Study Society

  http://www.glaucus.org.uk/planaria.htm
  One page about a planarian and one page about the life cycle of the digenean Cryptocotyle lingua, with a few photographs.

• Fredrick the Flatworm

  http://flatwormf.tripod.com/
  Information and images of different types of Platyhelminthes (flatworms). [Javascript required]

• Introduction to the Platyhelminthes

  http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/platyhelminthes/platyhelminthes.html
  Introduction to the Platyhelminthes, the flatworms: life in two dimensions. One page of text with a few photographs.

• Metagonimiasis

  http://www.cdc.gov/dpdx/metagonimiasis/
  Information on the minute intestinal fluke, Metagonimus yokogawai, which can parasitize the human gut, and a diagram and information on its life cycle.

• Phylum Platyhelminthes

  http://animaldiversity.org/site/accounts/information/Platyhelminthes.html
  An introduction to the phylum with more pages about the Turbellaria, Monogenea, Digenea and Cestoda, from Animal Diversity Web.

• Platyhelminthes: Flatworms, Tapeworms, Flukes

  http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?search=Platyhelminthes
  Much information on the flatworms and the characteristics that distinguish them from other worm-like creatures, with photographs and diagrams.

• Schistosomiasis

  http://www.cdc.gov/dpdx/schistosomiasis/index.html
  Information on the digenetic blood trematodes of the genus Schistosoma which can infect humans, and a diagram and information on their complex life cycle.

Related Categories

• Home > Science > Biology > Flora and Fauna > Animalia > Acoelomates
• Home > Science > Biology > Microbiology > Parasitology

 

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