Flatworm. Unidentified marine flatworm moving across the seabed. These brilliantly coloured creatures belong to the most primitive group of flatworms,

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Flatworm. Unidentified marine flatworm moving across the seabed. These brilliantly coloured creatures belong to the most primitive group of flatworms, the Turbellarians. They are free-living and non-parasitic, mostly feeding on small invertebrates. The mouth is under the body and is used for ingestion and egestion because the creature has no anus and is a polyclad (complex gut) variety. They live in shallow places on the coastal sea floor. They creep over the bottom and can swim only short distances, moving by wave-like undulations of the body and cilia (motile hairs). Photographed on the Ningaloo Reef, Australia.

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Size: 3886px × 2687px
Photo credit: © DR GEORGE GORNACZ/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: animal, flatworm, invertebrate, invertebrates, marine, nature, platyhelminthes, turbellarian, wildlife, zoology