These Solar-Powered Carnivorous Flatworms Divide and Conquer
From Deep Look
5 min4th5th6thScience
Summary
Some flatworms carry tiny algae inside their bodies and soak up sunlight for energy, like a living solar panel -- and when it's time to make more worms, they simply pull apart in two. Deep Look shows both amazing tricks up close.
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
These flatworms host algae that make food from sunlight, so the worm gets energy just by basking. To reproduce, the worm splits its own body in two and each half grows into a whole worm -- structure doing double duty.
- How does this flatworm get energy from the sun?
- How does the worm make a new worm without an egg?
- Why is carrying algae inside a helpful partnership for the worm?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: algae, energy, divide, structure.
Try it: Draw a worm and split it down the middle into two worms. Write how each half grows into a whole animal.