The variety of types of annelids is great, and among them there are even real vampires – bloodsucking leeches, for example. These creatures appeared on Earth long ago, but their evolution in the observed geological epoch either slowed down or stopped altogether, because modern worms are very similar to their ancient ancestors. Perhaps it is for the better.
Unlike flatworms, they do not have impressive regenerative abilities, and cannot recover their entire body from one piece of it. Earthworms, also ringed, are widely used in food in many countries. More than 80% of their mass is pure protein. If the earthworm is cut in half, only one half of it will survive – the one on which the head is located. Ringed worms do not have lungs and respiratory system per se. They absorb oxygen throughout the skin.
The longest ringed worm ever discovered was a 6.7 meter long instance found in South Africa. In Australia, there is a museum of a ringed earthworm, made in the form of a 100-meter worm. Visitors are invited to navigate through this worm inside, and sometimes even crawling. The process of mating some ringed worms can be very long. So, earthworms can mate for several hours in a row. There are about 18,000 species of ringed worms in the world.
In the process of evolution, some annelids got out of the water onto land and adapted to life in the hot tropics. These include some leeches found in hot countries. In a cubic meter of very fertile soil there may be several hundred thousand earthworms. Amazonian leeches dwelling in the waters of the Amazon, which are also ringed worms, are 45 centimeters in length. They even attack anacondas and caimans, and they can easily kill, for example, a cow or a man. About 500 species of annelids belong to leeches.
Many Mongols believe that an electric worm, a horgoi, lives in the Gobi desert, killing victims with an electric shock. Cryptozoologists refer this legendary creature to the ringed worms. True, no evidence of the existence of Olga-Horkhoi has yet been discovered. As the notorious crash of the space shuttle Columbia showed, the ringed worms can survive an overload in 2500g. Those in special boxes survived the destruction of the shuttle, which killed the entire crew.
Most ringed worms are afraid of the sun, since ultraviolet light affects them destructively. Biologists say that annelids and mollusks had a common ancestor millions of years ago. Ringed worms usually have more than one heart. The earthworm can have up to 9 of them.
