I think platyhelminthes is faux phyla of animals.Acoelomates: not actually platyhelminthes but they should be their own phylum.-flat-free living-often predatory-zero hooks around mouthHuman/Pork/Cow tapeworms:I think they are modified earthworms, they have been tapeworms for 330 million years but have gradualle moved out from frog/lizard hosts and eventually ended as parasites of mammals, also it is worth noting first mammal like creatures appeared already 220 million years ago, its a long time agowhy they are not platyhelminthes:-head is not flat altough everything that comes after the creatures head is infact flat-mouth has a number of hooks it uses to keep itself attached into a intestine, acoelomates have nothing like this-acoelomate mouth is in the CENTER of the worm and they are not even segmented animals-tapeworm is segmented with headcapsule being the first segment, tapeworm head is almost as complicated as earthwormsthings that is shared between "both types of flatworms"-they can regenerateare acoelamates and tapeworms genes identical?-not even close
>>16994573Trashcan taxons, anon.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wastebasket_taxon
>>16994573>Acoelomates: not actually platyhelminthes but they should be their own phylum.Acoelomorphs now are, but acoelomate platyhelminthes just lost their coelom as a derived trait.Platyhelminthes and their subdivisions are a phylo disaster though, it's true.>Human/Pork/Cow tapeworms: I think they are modified earthwormsthat's fucking retarded>head is not flat altough everything that comes after the creatures head is infact flatwow, a parasitic lineage developed some specialized structure for gripping that is not present in free-living lineages that diverged hundreds of millions of years ago?>tapeworm is segmentedThey're not, they just superficially look like it. This is as stupid as calling Caecilians earthworms.Tapeworms basically chain-produce and shit out proglottids by budding (strobilization), this is completely different from annelids or arthropods that see their bodies segmenting during embryonal development and/or metamorphosis
