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8 Bizarre Facts About Earthworms

The earthworm may be small, spineless, and blind, but its impact on the ecosystem is profound. Now, thanks to Amy Stewart, author of THE EARTH MOVED, earthworms of the world can stand a little taller.

• Worms' ancestors date back over 250 million years. They survived two mass extinctions, including the one that killed the dinosaurs.
• There are over 4,500 species of earth worms and many more species have not yet been identified and cataloged.
• Worms are hermaphrodites. To mate, they line up head to tail and can stay that way for several hours.
• If you cut a worm in half, you will not get two worms; however, the end that contains the head will usually grow a new tail.
• Charles Darwin played the piano for worms, to see how they react to different notes. He breathed on them with various scents on his breath to see how they would react to different smells.
• A giant earthworm in the Pacific Northwest measures two or three feet long and secretes a mucus that smells just like lilies.
• An ordinary nightcrawler lives about five years. Giant Australian worms live over twenty years.
• Earthworms have been used as bioindicators to identify soil pollutants. They have also been fed pollutant-degrading bacteria, which they carry far below ground in pollution clean-up projects.

  Who knew?