Phylum Platyhelminthes

- Class turbellaria

(Anatomy)

Turbellaria. The class Turbellaria is the most primitive group within the phylum
Platyhelminthes, the flatworms. ... Turbellarians also have an osmoregulatory
system called the protonephridium. This system is made up of tubules, a network
of little tubes, and specialized cells called flame cells

(mode of reproduction)
A few species live on land in damp habitats like leaf litter. Turbellarians reproduceby fission
and regeneration, or sexually. Turbellarians that reproduce sexually are hermaphroditic—
sperm from one animal will fertilize eggs from another, and the eggs then hatch into
small turbellarians.

(mode of nutrition)

The free-living turbellarians are ancestors of the parasitic flatworms; parasitism evolved as a
specialized form of feeding and reproducing from the scavenger lifestyle
of turbellarians. Turbellarians eat both living and dead animal material.

(harmful causes of diseases)

Disease(s)

Schistosomiasis

Fascioliasis, Clonorchiasis, Paragonimiasis

Taeniasis, Cysticercosis

(ecological niche)

Most members of class Turbellaria are predatory on invertebrates smaller than

themselves; the rest are herbivores, ectoparasites, or scavengers. Turbellarians use
protonephridia scattered throughout their epidermis for the excretion of metabolic waste.