As near as I can tell, no one knows! What about worms? ************************************************ 09-28-02, 05:53 PM cattywampus Huh. I always thought it was to avoid drowning.
Catty (who as a child had earthworms for friends) big grin confused razz
09-28-02, 10:46 PM Minnesota Some aquatic annelid worms have thin-walled, feathery gills through which gases are exchanged between the blood and the environment. However, most annelids, those we see in our dirt, have no special organs for gas exchange, and respiration occurs directly through the body wall. Soaking the earth with water effectively prevents respiration and, in effect, suffocates them. Their only recourse is abandon the earth by coming to the surface where they can again "breath."
09-30-02, 06:10 AM Elexina Someone once told me that they would drown (actually, I believe he said "drownd") if they stayed underground during the rain but I thought that sounded like a really stupid stop on the evolution path. I mean, if they just die when they come above ground, don't you think they would have evolved to be able to survive underground, in their homes? ...Sometimes nature is pretty dumb, I guess.
09-30-02, 07:47 AM MkStfnz Drowning is the inability to breath due to the intake of fluid in the lungs (or other respiratory surface as the case may be; for worms it would be the skin). So, whoever says that a worm would drown in this case would be right! It just isn't the full explanation.
09-30-02, 05:30 PM methos not absolutely sure about the why (although i have also been told that it's to avoid drowning), but coming out of the ground would not be an evolutionary mistake. Most worms come up out of the ground during a storm then go back down after the storm. It's only those unfortunate to enough to get stuck on a surface that they can't move very well on and can't borrow down into (e.g. the sidewalk) that die. The vast majority of worms don't suffer this fate, and sidewalks have only been a stressor for a small amount of the worm's evolution, so this wouldn't be an evolutionary mistake.
09-30-02, 06:52 PM frankvan The past summer in Maryland has seen weeks and months of drought and many consecutive days in the 100 degree range I, and many neighbors, have noticed an unusual number of worms that have become stranded and baked on the pavement. I theorize that they find conditions under the pavement intolerable and come up through the occasional crack, and get stranded. ???
confused confused confused
10-01-02, 10:46 AM Elexina
quote:Originally posted by methos5000: not absolutely sure about the why (although i have also been told that it's to avoid drowning), but coming out of the ground would not be an evolutionary mistake...
What I'm saying is that it seems like an evolutionary screw-up for a creature to be unable to survive in its home. A worms' home is underground and yet when it rains it seems it can't survive in it's home. THAT sounds silly to me. I didn't say anything about sidewalks, and I think that birds and other animals have been fatal to worms long before the advent of the sidewalk.
10-01-02, 11:13 AM sid1114 if it's an evolutionary screwup, then so is it that a gazelle can't outrun a cheetah. But the way it works is that things are in balance; enough worms are deep enough not to drown, or enough that rise up are not eaten by birds, and conversely, enough DO get eaten to feed the birds. It is, in fact, an evolutionary marvel; or, to be less dramatic, it's how it works in all things.
10-01-02, 11:41 PM Professor sid1114: Beautiful answer smile No matter how you analyze it, you have to start with the fact that worms have been around for a *long* time.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,
As we all very well know, worms burrow underground, but their real reason for doing so has remained secret until now. The true reason of why worms hide underground is that they are attempting to decieve humanity into thinking that they are unintellegent creatures. In actuality, worms are very much more intellegent than anyone ever previously thought, except for one Professor Thaddius Nelson of North Hampshire Community College, who knew the secrets of these fiendish invertebrates. Using the Acidic Base Guide of the Electronucleic Mass Subsidy, Professor Nelson was able to drive the worms from their underground homes and discover their secret plot. Whenever it rains, as proposed in Yaroslov's Theory of Invertebrate-Human Relations Based on Quickening Enducement, the worms came up and began drilling in traditional Prussian Military style, dragging ice cream cones full of highly unstable Uranium in them. They intended to use these cones as missles to destroy every doll house in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, but Professor Nelson stopped them with a paramilitary force of starved, crazed badgers to end the threat for now.
Posts: 2 | Location: Luxembourg City, Luxembourg | Registered: 09-13-02
