Triploblastic and Acoelomate Body Plan: Phylum Platyhelminthes

Triploblastic and Acoelomate Body Plan: Phylum Platyhelminthes

 Phylum Platyhelminthes

Platyhelminthes very commonly known as flatworms or tapeworms, these animals are soft-bodied invertebrate animals. There are around 20,000 species of these animals. A few of these live as parasites on humans and other animals. It is because of this parasitic nature that they do cause some amount of trouble for the host animal. A few species belonging to this phylum can be a major cause of certain diseases. Schistosomiasis, or bilharzia or bilharziasis, is a disease caused by these parasitic flatworms belonging to the family Schistosomatidae.

The most distinguishing feature of these invertebrates is their flat body. As the body does not have any cavity, they are flat. The body is also not segmented and they do not have specialized systems. Around eighty percent of the flatworms are parasitic in nature, while a few free-form flatworms are also present. The free-living species are scavengers or predators. The parasitic species feed on the tissues of the host organism in which they live.

The animals in this phylum have a diverse range in size. Some are microscopic, while a few go up to two feet long. They are also hermaphrodites, which mean that both the sexes are present in the same organism