the.com/worms
the planet's unpaid soil engineers, eating dirt and quietly running the entire underground economy
means Worms are long, soft-bodied, limbless invertebrates that burrow through soil, water, or other organisms, with earthworms being the familiar garden variety.
from From Old English "wyrm," which once meant far more than the humble crawler — it covered serpents, dragons, and any creeping, coiling beast. It's tied to a broad Germanic family (compare German "Wurm" and Old Norse "ormr") and likely reaches back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to turn or bend," possibly a cousin of Latin "vermis" (source of "vermin"). So the word for the wriggling thing in your garden once also named the fire-breathing dragon a hero slew — both, after all, are long things that twist.
- earth movers
- can flip the top six inches of soil yearly
- both sexes
- hermaphrodites, yet still need a partner
- five hearts
- earthworms pump blood through aortic arches
- breathe skin
- no lungs; oxygen absorbed through moist skin
- darwin obsessed
- his final book was entirely about worms
earthworm — lumbricus terrestris, found in soil worldwide, can grow up to 35cm long
hookworm — necator americanus, parasitic roundworm infecting ~576 million people globally
tapeworm — taenia solium, can reach 10 meters long in human intestines
guinea worm — dracunculus medinensis, once infected 3.5 million annually, nearly eradicated by 2024