Anatomy Lesson



   Right now I want to talk about the anatomy of the earthworm. Earthworms are bilaterally symmetrical, which means that to the left and right of the giant blood vessel the runs through their backs they are exactly the same.
  Earthworms are one of the few animals, maybe the only one, that has a true ceolom. A ceolom is a fluid-filled body cavity surrounded by a mesoderm. Since I didn't know what a mesoderm was, I googled it. According to Webster, it's the middle layer of an embryo in early development.
  Most people think that worms move simply by expanding and contracting, but that's only partly true. They have little bristles on them that grab the soil, called setae. Each segment has two pairs of two setae on the 'bottom' side.
  I know there's a lot more about it's anatomy that I should cover right now, but I'm not really up to it. Last night I realized, I'm a junior in high school, I really need to figure out what I'm going to do with my life now. I don't want to go straight into college, so I was thinking about maybe joining the peace corps after I graduate. What other opportunities are out there?

Giant Gippsland Worm

  Last month, I learned that there was a worm in Australia that grows to be over two meters long! This earthworm is called the Giant Gippsland Worm. It lives in Gippsland, Australia, and was discovered in 1878. They thought it was a snake!
  One of the interesting things about this earthworm is that it never comes above ground. I know, you're thinking I'm an idiot. Of course it never comes up, it's a worm, worms live underground. But worms do come above ground. When it rains, for example. Or when the population density becomes too great. But the only thing that can force the Gippsland worms up is a very heavy rain. And by very heavy, I mean buckets are being emptied somewhere up in the sky. That kind of rain.
  They live in elaborate, permanent burrows on the sides of steep hills and valleys, but is also found in gray-blue clay on stream banks. Their habitat is down to a few sparse miles, forty total. But their distribution within that land is patchy, and their population density is unusually low, only two per thirty-five feet.
  Funny thing is, farmers who have them on their property are extremely proud, but for the most part they do nothing to save them. Giant Gippsland Worms are a threatened species, and conservation measures are very limited.
  But these worms cannot just bounce back quickly like other earthworm species could. These have a comparatively slow life cycle, it takes a year for them to mature inside their cocoon, and then it takes several years to become sexually mature. Personally, that makes me put their name on the possible sentient list, but maybe that's just 'cause I'm worm crazy.