  Source:
Yucky
Kids Discovery.com
Wendell the Worm, Ace Reporter here
with the inside story on the great creatures known as worms. Let's follow
a leaf through my body to see how I eat and digest it. Earthworms have
mouths, we can even open them wide to fit leaves and other good things.
But we don't have teeth! Here is what happend to my lunch:
Pharynx: I push my pharynx or throat out of
my mouth to grab leaves and to pull them back into my mouth. Then I get
them nice and wet with my saliva.
Esophagus: Once I have my food good and wet,
I push it down my esophagus, then onto my crop.
Crop: My crop is a storage compartment for
my food and other things I swallow. From the crop, my lunch goppes to my
gizzard.
Gizzard: My gizzard is where the work happens.
I use any
stones that I've swallowed and the strong muscles
of my gizzard to grind up the leaves. These muscles work almost like teeth.
Intestine: Once I have the leaves all ground
up they move to my intestine where the digestive juices break them down
even more.
Bloodstream: Now that the leaf is all digested,
some of it will pass into my bloodstream.
Anus: Whatever is leftover comes out my anus
as castings or worm poop. |
