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Platyhelminthes

Platyhelminthes (plăt"ēhelmin'thēz) [key], phylum containing about 20,000 species of soft-bodied, bilaterally symmetrical, invertebrate animals, commonly called flatworms. There are four classes: the free-living, primarily aquatic class, Turbellaria, and Trematoda, Cestoda, and Monogenea, which are considerably modified for their exclusively parasitic existence. While the structure of the flatworms marks a major step in animal evolution, their origin and relationships within the group are still controversial.

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The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

More on Platyhelminthes from Infoplease:

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Platyhelminthes: Anatomy - Anatomy Flatworms are dorso-ventrally flattened. The epidermis is generally ciliated in the ...
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Platyhelminthes: Class Turbellaria - Class Turbellaria The mostly free-living, primarily carnivorous, flatworms of class Turbellaria are ...

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Zoology: Invertebrates

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Related content from HighBeam Research on: Platyhelminthes

Acoel Flatworms: Earliest Extant Bilaterian Metazoans, Not Members of Platyhelminthes. (Science)

A standardised terminology of the embryonic envelopes and associated developmental stages of tapeworms (Platyhelminthes: Cestoda) (Folia Parasitologica)

SUB-TEGUMENTAL VENTRAL FIBRES SURROUNDING THE VAGINAL OPENING OF ENTOBDELLA SOLEAE (VAN BENEDEN ET HESSE, 1864) JOHNSTON, 1929 (PLATYHELMINTHES: MONOGENEA: CAPSALIDAE) (Folia Parasitologica)

Observations on feeding behavior by the terrestrial flatworm bipalium adventitium (platyhelminthes: Tricladida: Terricola) from Illinois (The American Midland Naturalist)

A new state record of Bipalium adventitium Hyman, 1943 (Tricladida: platyhelminthes) from Idaho, with a key to the species of Bipalium known to inhabit the United States.(Report) (Journal of the Idaho Academy of Science)

Asexual Reproduction in Pygospic elegans C1aparede (Annelida, Polychaeta) in Relation to Parasitism by Lepocreadium setiferides (Miller and Northup) (Platyhelminthes, Trematoda). (The Biological Bulletin)

The description of Gyrodactylus corleonis sp. n. and G. neretum sp. n. (Platyhelminthes: Monogenea) with comments on other gyrodactylids parasitising pipefish (Pisces: Syngnathidae) (Folia Parasitologica)

Telomere analysis of platyhelminths and acanthocephalans by FISH and Southern hybridization.(Report) (Genome)

Myogenesis in the basal bilaterian Symsagittifera roscoffensis (Acoela).(Research)(Report) (Frontiers in Zoology)

Molecular phylogeny of the animal kingdom. (Science)

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