Correct it. A scientific error was found in the section of the article’Rollus and cone cells of the bull’. In the article, it was published that’the bull’s eye only has rod cells’, but as a result of the confirmation, it was confirmed that the bull’s eye has both rod cells and cone cells. We will become the Science Times working harder.
Existing false myths about animals are often pointed out and corrected with accurate knowledge according to the development of various media and the Internet. In other words, expert explanations are presented in the question-and-answer section of major portals, or through Wikipedia, collective intelligence can be exercised to correct errors.
Among some myths about animals, the Internet and the media disseminate and amplify misinformation and knowledge. One representative case is the question,’If an earthworm is cut in half, does the front and back parts regenerate and become two earthworms?’
For each question and answer on the portal or on a personal blog, responses and explanations such as’becoming two earthworms’ and’not becoming two’ are tightly divided, and even encyclopedias contain incorrect information. To start with the conclusion to this question, cutting an earthworm in half does not mean that it will reproduce as two whole earthworms. It is also a false myth that there are two worms that have been cut off.
Earthworm with front and back separated ⓒ GNU Free Documentation License
Earthworm generally refers to animals belonging to the beetle family with no hairs among annular animals with a ring-shaped segmented structure. There are more than 5,000 kinds. Earthworms have a different structure in front and back, and the front part contains the main organs necessary for survival, such as the brain and heart, and the rear part has no important organs other than the intestines and anus as long as the body length.
Earthworms have the same closed blood system as humans, and generally have as many as 10 hearts. And the part of the front part of the earthworm that is slightly swollen while different from other parts is called girdle, and there are organs related to reproductive activity around this area.
Earthworms vary by type, but most have some degree of regenerative ability. Therefore, if an earthworm is cut in half, the front part containing important organs such as the brain and heart can gradually regenerate the tail. However, the back of the cuts, usually the lower part of the hospitality, cannot reproduce the upper part of the head.
Some species of earthworms with excellent regenerative ability are known to be capable of bidirectional regeneration, but this is also capable of regenerating a portion of the important organs if they are not severely damaged. Therefore, it is not possible to regenerate both the brain and the heart and become two intact parts of the cut part that does not contain important organs.
The false myth that there are two worms cut in half may be due to the fact that it does not die immediately and wriggles for a considerable amount of time, or that the tail part can be regenerated to some extent. Or it is possible that they confuse not an earthworm, but another animal that has excellent regenerative ability.
Planaria, a flat-type animal with excellent reproducibility ⓒ Eduard Sola
When the body is cut in half, the animal that each part can become two intact through regeneration is not an earthworm, but a Planaria. Planaria is an animal belonging to the triangular order of flat-type animals and forms a genus, and its scientific name, or genus, is Planaria. It is a small animal whose body length is about 1~3cm and forms a symmetrical shape, and it mainly lives in the bottom of rivers or lakes.
Planarians are known to have excellent regeneration ability. When cut in half, the head side regenerates the rest of the tail, and the tail side regenerates the head, resulting in two. When it is divided into 3 parts, it is regenerated into three intact, and it has an excellent ability to regenerate the whole even in a small body fragment that is only about 1/100th of a whopping.
Planaria, which is often used in animal regeneration experiments, has lived on Earth since about 500 million years ago, and does not have an anus but has a brain. In other words, if it is cut into small pieces, it has an amazing ability to regenerate the brain even in areas where there is no brain. This is possible because each cell remembers the whole body. If the mechanism by which planarians remember, store, and regenerate body information can be accurately identified, it can be used in various ways in the treatment of disorders or regenerative medicine.
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