WEBVTT - How Earthworms Work 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.360 from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.840 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W Chuck Bryant 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:25.880 and that makes his debut take two. Rarely do we 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.360 have a take two, very rarely, but we did today. 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:31.880 Yeah we did. We started just kind of talking and 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.440 shop and Jerry's like, what are you guys doing? Yea, um, 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:38.440 but anyway, here we are. We're back, We're happy, everything's 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.600 good and um we're we're gonna talk a little bit 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.919 about earthworms, right, Yes? Are you feeling good about this one? 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.840 I am very interesting stuff. I wrote this article specifically 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:54.720 so we can podcast on it. So, chuck y, have 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.720 you heard of a man named Charles Darwin? You know 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:02.280 I love Chuckie d So chuck Chuck the Charles Darwin 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.800 um very famous for the On the Origin of the 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:12.399 Species um incredibly important work. Did you know though, that 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:16.920 The Origin of the Species was out sold in the 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:20.959 nineteenth century by another book of his called The Formation 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.160 of Vegetable Mold through the Action of Worms, with observations 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:26.880 on their habits that sold more copies for real. Yeah, 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:29.800 through throughout the rest of the nineteenth century. It was 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.800 published in one UM and I think like the Origin 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.240 of the species came a little after that. So, but 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.680 just during the nineteenth century for a while there, um, 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.840 the formation of vegetable mold was crazy out selling on 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:46.000 the origin of the species. I saw today where he 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:52.400 studied earthworms for thirty nine years. Yeah, it was. This 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:54.720 book was very near and dear to his heart, like 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.040 this topic was. He spent a lot of time really 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:02.640 looking at earthworm. I guess he died because why would 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:04.400 you give up at thirty nine? I would say, let's 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.279 just make it an even forty. I think he wrote 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.760 the book and was like, Okay, don't you go. I'm done. 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:12.920 I'm onto some Let's go to Galapagos exactly you know, 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:16.160 um he uh. He came up with in this thirty 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.720 nine years and in this book some very um, very 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:23.079 well understood observations that are still accepted today. Right. Um. 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:25.320 As a matter of fact, we have a quote from 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.400 him as read by him. All right, you want to hear. 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.520 It may be doubted whether there are many other animals 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.600 which have played so important apart in the history of 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:41.880 the world, as have these lowly organized creatures. So there 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:44.720 you have it. Wow, the earthworm is very, very important. 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:46.720 I didn't know he talked like that. I didn't either. 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:51.959 It's kind of surprising, um, but he. Uh. This this idea, 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:57.040 this concept that the earthworm is extremely important to the 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.600 earth was kind of put forth by Darwins and accepted 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.720 as gospel since them and in the decades and centuries 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.240 since Darwin. He did such a good job that earthworm 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:13.280 research kind of fell by the wayside. Scientific community was classifying, 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:16.720 classifying as extinct, like worms they just hadn't seen in 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.720 a while that would just later pop back up, like 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:24.440 the giant pelouse earthworm in the Pacific northwest of the 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:28.120 United States. It was thought to be extinct, classified as 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.080 such in the eighties, and then in two thousen it 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.040 pops up and they're like, oh, it's not extinct. The 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.200 worm popped up. And that happens a lot with earthworms, 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.640 like people just classified him as extinct. So this kind 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.680 of like these appearances of kind of reinvigorated science and 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:48.280 it's inquiry into earthworms. I wonder how he got on it, Darwin. Yeah, 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:50.480 I mean out of all the different things he was studying. 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:53.280 I wonder how he honed in on the earthworm and 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:56.200 knew its value, just because if no one else had 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:59.200 studied its value, I would never look at an earthworm 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:01.280 and think it's very valid able at all. No, but 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:06.320 people before Darwin realized the value of earthworms like aristotles 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.800 of the soil. No, but he's the one who dedicated 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:14.320 thirty nine years to studying them. Um So just in 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:19.080 sheer size alone, um, I guess in sheer volume is 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.280 a better way to put it. Earthworms are there. They 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:27.320 have a substantial impact on earth. I think, so three 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:33.880 thousand species. Notice it didn't say species species. You know 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:38.000 people say species. Sorry species Germans know a lot of 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:43.000 people say species as species, species, species, species. I don't 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:46.520 know which one I say. I think both acceptable. I 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:51.920 think not species. Yeah. Uh. They have reigned in size 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.240 from about a centimeter to nine feet, although they go 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.479 away more than that. Yeah. I think the world record 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.200 I found was one in South Africa was twenty two 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.359 ft long. Twenty two ft long earthworm. That's huge, and 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.839 there are plenty others. Japan has some giant ones, Australia 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.120 does too. Of course, I found one. We'll talk about that. 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.039 Lots of giant freaks of nature. But here's here's the 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:15.479 cool stat of the day for me. Uh Plus, we 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.200 get to say the word hectare just close to two 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.280 and a half acres. Yeah, it's like two point four 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.600 seven single hecked air. You can find five hundred thousand 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:28.000 to two million worms, and their total biomass wet biomass 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.599 equals ten times a total weight of all the other 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:36.080 animals living above ground combined on that same size spot 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.800 of land, on that same heck there. Yeah, that's nutty. 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.520 That is nutty, especially considering that worms don't go that 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:46.080 deep into the soil. Let's say there's twelve deer on 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:48.480 that heck dare I mean, that's gonna be a lot 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.719 of weight right there. It's just from the deer. Say 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:53.920 say each deer weighs a hundred and fifty pounds, it's 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:59.320 like eight hundred pounds and a dozen deer some amount 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:03.679 of kilograms. Yeah, that's probably like n So the point 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.440 is a lot of worms. Yeah, there are, there's a 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.359 ton of worms. Um, they're spread all over the place. 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.480 But here's an interesting fact. If um, if you've read fourteen, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:18.000 you probably already know this Charles Man's brilliant follow up 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:23.760 to his triumphant I can't wait for fo Yeah, look 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:26.839 out for that one. He's just gonna pick some random 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:32.360 date like um. If the if you go into uh, 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.800 the average North American woods in the northern United States, 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.599 say um, and you find an earthworm, that earthworm. Had 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.440 you dug in the same spot five hundred years before, 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.920 you wouldn't have found any earthworms there. Like all earthworms 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:51.279 in North America and Canada above about the forty degree 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:56.320 latitude UM are new. They're relatively recent immigrants from Asia 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.520 and Europe, and they hitched a ride thanks to the 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:04.520 coling to America in plants the soil. Yeah, root balls 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.720 that were attached to plants um that were imported to 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:13.280 the United States and Canada. UM from Asia and Europe. Yes, Chuck, 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.480 I have a question. Yes, I have a few questions 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:17.040 for you, because you wrote this and it's always nice 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.400 to speak to the author, and you're right in front 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.840 of me. So how's how's that I'm right here? Uh? 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.280 Do they know what was here before the ice age 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:29.960 that killed off all the original native species? Surely there 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:34.280 were worms. Then it's an excellent question. No, they don't know. 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:36.480 Now they know that, I guess not because it was 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:38.440 pretty ice age. It's not like they had records. There 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:42.360 were some there's there's fossil there's fossil records of earthworms 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:44.920 that go back like a hundred and sixty five million years, 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:46.840 like there was a huge giant earthworm that it was 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:51.080 armor plated. Right. But yeah, but the stuff in North America, 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:55.400 apparently the fossil record is fairly incomplete here. Um, they 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.960 do suspect that a lot of worms made their way 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:02.400 southward towards warmer ground when these glacial ice sheets started 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:07.000 bearing down from Canada. Everything, a lot of stuff died, 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.239 some stuff high tail it south. So you can bet 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:13.440 that if you go to southern California or Mexico and 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:16.760 big and find a worm, that's probably the same species 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:22.680 that were higher up, species that were further north, you know, 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.840 prior to the last because you make a point later 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:29.320 that it's considered an invasive species because it's not native. 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:32.360 But I thought, well, surely they weren't that different before 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:35.440 the ice age, right. Well, the species the species that 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:39.360 are here, especially um, the common European earthworm, which we 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:43.520 here in the United States called nightcrawlers. That's from Europe, 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.760 which is why it's the common European nightworm. Those are 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:52.160 recent immigrants. Those guys weren't here before, right. So the 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.199 other reason they're invasive, Chuck, is since the end of 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:57.839 the last ice Age, say ten to twenty thousand years ago, 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:02.600 these woodlands in the north in the United States, uh developed, 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.760 they adapted, they changed to life without earthworms. Now they're 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.680 having to adapt to life with earthworms. That makes sense, 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.240 which makes earthworms invasive. Now, yeah, I get that, that 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.400 makes perfect sense. All right. Well, hey, look at there. 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:17.160 We covered a bit at the end. Yeah, we're gonna 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:20.960 get out here early now thanks. Another cool point you 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:25.040 make is if you dig down into the earth in 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.000 your backyard, in the earth a couple of feet, you're 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.280 probably gonna find all three classifications of earthworm because they're 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.560 they're classified by where they live in the soil. Because 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:38.000 they're also similar in appearance. I mean, yeah, except for 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.760 like maybe how thick around they are, how many segments 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:45.439 they have, um, how long they are. That's pretty much 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:49.240 the differences in earthworms. They're all very similar like wherever 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.199 you are. But there are three classes. And like you said, 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:54.240 they're based on where they live, Like there's the ones 0:09:54.280 --> 0:10:00.319 above ground. Yeah, I've been pronouncing in my head eyak, 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.480 but GX sounds a lot I like gay do you like? Guy? 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.360 Let's go with that. Well, because it's a it's derivative 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:10.199 of gaya earth and eppie is above. So this is this, 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.760 This is the classification of earthworms that live like in 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.800 the leaf litter, which is also called the litter horizon, 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:20.400 that pile of leaves and organic material that that covers 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.920 the soil that these red wigglers. Red worms have a 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.000 lot to do with the fact that it's you know, 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.680 eventually gonna be black and slimy. Yeah, almost all of 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.280 the fact all they have almost everything to do with that. 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.360 I mean there's other like microbes and protozoa and other 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.280 stuff like that breaking it down, but the worms are 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:40.720 the ones that can get it done. So those red 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:43.000 wigglers are fun to play with if you're a kid. 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:46.720 Uh so are the next level down you get to 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.480 the indo gaeic as we'll say. Now they live in 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.640 the top soil that sort of you know how deep 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.040 like the first several inches, Yeah, you know, like the 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.800 dark top soil. Good stuff. As I like to call it. Yeah, 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.400 and they spend their whole lit beneath the soil, which 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:04.920 is why they're usually like very light in color, gray pinkish, 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:09.200 they're white, kind of uglier. Yeah. Have you ever seen 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.200 that movie The Layer of the White Worm. That's a 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.400 great horror. Yeah, I've heard of Hugh Grants first movies. 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:20.040 Awesome was he the white Worm? No? He was the dude. Okay, 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.800 he played a man. Uh. You say because they live 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:28.920 under the soil full time, that the least amount of 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:33.720 information is known about them. But another question the next 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:40.120 level down that uh and and essek they hold the 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.920 nightcrawlers the deepest dwelling ones. But it seems like we 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.319 know more about them than the other guys, a little 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:49.280 pink and gray guys. So why would that be? Well, 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.559 the reason is is because the little pink and gray guys, 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.560 the epigaic ones um, spend their whole lives underground, so 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:59.679 they just stay there. Yes, okay, they also make horizontal burrows, right, 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:02.079 so like they don't have to come up at all. 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:05.480 They don't. They have almost nothing to do with leaf decomposition. 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:07.960 So the nightcrawlers come up and then go back down 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:10.720 exactly Not only do nightcrawlers come up, they come up 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.040 and travel as far as like sixty two ft in 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:17.040 a night looking for food. Like they hang out above ground. 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.319 The epigaic ones you have to dig down for them. 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.880 They're not coming up to greet you. So the scientists 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:25.240 don't have spades. That's what I'm saying, man Like the 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.800 like science generally was like, Okay, Darwin wrote the book 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:32.199 on earthworms. You don't have to any more investigation about that. Interesting. 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:37.320 Another cool fact about the nightcrawler is that they go 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:41.320 upstairs to to grab some food and bring it back down. 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.520 They're like, hey, that leaf is really choice and moist, 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.199 so I'm gonna grab it and take it back downstairs 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:52.080 and just chow. So my little belly bursts. I love that. Yeah, 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:54.360 but it also kind of gives you an idea of 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:58.360 like just how powerful like a nightcrawler is it drags 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.480 its food back to its house. You know. I used 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:06.600 to hate fishing with worms. That's that and the potential. 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.440 One time I went fishing and caught brim, and um, 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:12.959 I didn't have a hook remover and this thing, this 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:16.360 brim swallowed this hook like crazy, and I was trying 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:18.760 so hard to get it out, and it was just 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.600 like obvious that this weren't This fish was dying. And 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:25.880 one of his buddies was just sitting there almost at 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.800 the bank, almost up on the ground, watching me, just 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.000 looking at me like why did you do that? So 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.000 that and then the that she club that one, I 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.319 was like stopped looking at me. Fishing just punched the water. 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.360 Um that the potential of a fish dying, and then 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:46.400 the guarantee of worms dying, uh made me quit fishing 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:50.760 forever sticks because fish is fun. Fishing is fun. I 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:54.360 love to fish, yeah, but I just don't do it anymore. 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:59.360 All right, Well that's sad for you. Oh club fish 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:03.880 like clubbing, but I won't actually use like a roden reel. 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.560 Earthworms are segmented Josh, which is also very interesting. Uh. 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:12.800 They are from the phylum Annelid, which means ringed worm. 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:14.880 And there's about a hundred to a hundred and fifty 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:19.200 of these rings and they're each controlled separately little muscles, 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.720 which is very important because they expand and contract to 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.640 move their little slimy bodies forward. And they have these 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.520 bristles at the front towards the head the anterior and 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.800 um that are retractable. They're called settee, and um, they 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:36.200 can just go big and dig into the dirt and 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:38.520 hold the head in place while the rest of the 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.440 body kind of contracts to get smaller to move forward 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.040 like that. So these sete you go in and out 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.800 depending on whether the heads moving or is it needs 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:50.480 to be anchored so the rest of the body can 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.040 catch up. And that's how they scoot along at sixty 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:59.640 two per night for nightcrawlers. So um, pretty much, Chuck, 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.520 I don't know what we're naming this one yet, but 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.800 one of the one of them the suggestions you made 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.840 was earthworms eating and pooping machines kind of like sharks, 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:13.720 and I mean kind of um, but possibly even more 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.600 beneficial than sharks. Sharks are like an apex predator. Right 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.280 of course, earthworms are not an apex predator, but like 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:23.640 I said, Aristotle call him the intestine of the soil. 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.000 And one of the reasons why is because they just 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.640 eat and eat and eat, and the stuff that they 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.920 do eat they poop out. And it's actually what's crazy, 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:38.280 remember the digestion um episode, So like the stuff that 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.760 comes out of us, it's like nobody needs that. It's 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:47.000 total waste with the worm, it's actually better than it 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:51.560 was before. Warm poop is better than the food it eats. Yeah, 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:53.880 that's pretty cool. That is pretty cool. And the way 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:57.400 it eats is even cooler. I think. Um, they obviously 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:58.920 eat and you're not gonna be able to tell a 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:03.920 huge difference between the mouth end and the anus end 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:09.120 unless you really dig your fingers in there. But at 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:12.400 the mouth end, they're gonna they're gonna pass dirt and 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:14.920 organic matter into their mouth and it's gonna go into 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.320 an area called the crop where they store it for 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.840 a little while, then into the gizzard. And this is 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:21.960 the coolest part to me. In the gizzard, they have 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.560 these tiny pebbles that they've already eaten, and those pebbles 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:28.440 grind the food up even more like a little food 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:31.320 processor to make it easier to pass through. That is 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.760 so cool. And uh, in the intestinal walls, they they're 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.480 aligned with blood vessels and sort of like our own 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:42.200 blood vessels, they absorb and distribute nutrients. So it's not 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:44.680 that much different than people. Yeah, no, it's not the 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:51.920 thing about earthworms though, is the nutrients, especially nitrogen um, 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:56.520 that they eat that they pass out is about of 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.360 what was say, locked into a leaf, so they only 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:03.160 keep like a order of the available nitrogen for themselves. 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.520 But through digestion, what was once just locked into this 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.000 leaf and was totally unusable to like a tree root, 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:15.400 is now digested and broken up and available. It's called 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.280 nitrogen fixing. And that's what worms do. They're casting their 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:23.760 feces is broken down nitrogen, which is why people use 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:28.400 worms for composting. That's exactly right there, the secret ingredient. 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:32.240 While they're not secret but key ingredient to compost. But 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:36.960 that's the that's the epigayic right. The ones that live 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:42.280 above ground, the compost ones, the earthworms, like the annesic ones, 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:45.359 they're big into composting two but they do it below ground. 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:51.120 Um earthworm has five hearts. Kind of a neat fact 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:55.399 right there. I would say aortic arches and uh I 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.919 saw I think I saw in another photo like they 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.840 have one of the main ones is that and then 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.280 four other ones? Are they all equal? I think that 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.520 they are. There's a main one, I believe, so you 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:11.840 think I know you and chuck. The breathing through their 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.800 skin is another cool trait. They don't have lungs, but 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.439 they still need to breathe, so they just pass it 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:22.200 passively through the skin inhaling and exhaling. There's no inhaler 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:26.040 exhale because it just happens. But I call that an inhale. 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.919 Even though when I was writing this, I had to 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.360 go back. I was like, no, they're not inhaler. Yeah. Um, 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.080 as long as their skin is coated in this mucus 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:38.119 that they produced, that's how air exchanges is allowed to 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:43.560 take place. Um. And if there's enough broken down available 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:47.720 oxygen in a body of water, a worm can live 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.639 in water. It can survive in water for a while 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:53.440 because the air exchange is still taking place. They're just 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.040 grabing oxygen. Yeah. Um. The problem is is when they 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.320 encounter like really dry hot air like above ground. Yeah. 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.880 I think we've all seen that sad, sad site. Right. 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.879 So if you if you've ever seen like a worm 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:08.399 that's curled up and is dry on the sidewalk that 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:12.200 were suffocated to death because it wasn't able to breathe. 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.320 That's mucus dried out. I couldn't breathe, you know, and 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:19.240 all it needed to do is reach those leaves, but 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:21.600 it failed on the sidewalk and that happens a lot 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:23.199 in Georgia. Obviously you see a lot of those in 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:27.680 the summertime. Uh. And to to make sure that they survive. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.360 They don't have eyes, so it's not like they can say, oh, 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.320 the sun's out, but they're able to sense light through 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:38.120 these photo sensitive cells on their skin that convert light 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:42.160 into electrical impulses. So they feel this and say, hey, 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:44.160 it's sunny out, I need to burrow down a little 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.360 bit more. Yeah, pretty cool, yep. And this is why 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:50.240 these buggers have survived for so long. It is. And um, 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:54.040 that's also the role for their brain that their brain 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:58.880 plays is to say, I'm sensing some light, so let's 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:01.080 move down a little for there where there's not light. 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:05.760 That's pretty much the extent of the worm brain. Yeah, 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.240 that's what I saw. They said, if you remove the brain, 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.080 then you're hardly going to notice any change in behavior, 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:16.120 except I guess they would dry up in the sun. Yeah. Right, 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:20.040 So maybe that's what we've seen is brainless worms on sidewalks. Yeah, 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.879 or maybe they lost part of it. Someone remove their brains. 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:26.320 We can go ahead and talk about that the regeneration. Okay, 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:28.880 go ahead, because I need some explanation on that part. 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.080 I get it a worm if if it's part of 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:36.520 it is chopped off somehow, Um, they can regenerate uh 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:39.640 more more towards the tail than the head. Is that right? 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.119 So like that if you cut a worm in half, 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:46.600 only one half is going to regenerate. Most likely it's 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.280 the head end that they have an easier time regenerating 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:53.600 their tail than they have their head. That makes sense. Um. 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.000 The thing is is one of the joys of this 0:20:56.200 --> 0:21:00.080 is like anytime there's a question or something's vague, can 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.640 be like, yeah, science really dropped the ball on earthworm 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:07.160 research for a century. They there there's evidence that like 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:11.400 and both sides can regenerate into two new worms. People 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:17.359 have documented this supposedly, Um, there's like different, um, contrary 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:22.080 evidence about how much could regenerate or how little, like 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:24.480 how little of a segment you need to regenerate into 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:27.240 a new worm. So there's a bunch of apparently there's 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:29.639 a bunch of evidence out there that says like worms 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:32.720 are spectacular regenerating and others are saying they're a little 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.320 more limited than we think. Well, any kind of regeneration 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:37.439 is pretty amazing if you ask me, Yeah, I agree. 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.280 But if you want to make a bet with your friend, 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:42.240 a very cruel friend who had just cut a worm 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:45.959 directly in half, which end was going to regenerate, always 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:48.120 put your money on the tail end. I could never 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:50.000 I mean, it's just a little worm. I could never 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.480 do that because they just squirmed so much like they're 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:57.000 in horrible pain. You know. Yeah, have you read considered 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:01.800 the lobster David Foster Wallace, like his his article for 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:06.360 Gourmet magazine. Well, they sent him to like the Lobster Festival, 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:09.000 and we were just expecting like a kind of a 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:13.239 travel foodie article, and instead he went and did a 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:15.560 bunch of research on whether or not lobsters feel pain 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:18.440 because they're boiled to death. Yea, and definitely make noises 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:21.119 to when that happened. They do. They scratch like the 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:24.120 pot trying to get out. They do. But the key 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:28.080 is is like, yes, surely they feel pain. Of course 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:30.600 they feel pain. Um, they it's been shown that they 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:33.600 have nerve receptors that you know, since pain, do they 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:38.240 experience suffering? So that weren't squirming in in pain and 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:41.520 suffering or just pain and really doesn't matter, I mean, 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:44.639 and think inflicting pain on anything is cruel, but inflicting 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:49.840 suffering is evil. Yeah. Yeah, I don't need a much lobster. 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:52.680 Yeah you me um read that and was like, I'm 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:55.439 never eating lobster again. I was like, I like a 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:59.480 good lobster disk though I love lobster man. But there's 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:01.920 another cool thing from this article. Did you know that 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:07.439 until probably about the twentieth century, people considered lobster like 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:13.520 sea insects. It was for like the the the poor, 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.760 and the basically the lower classes. And there were actually 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:21.439 laws apparently in New England about how many times a 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:24.360 week you could feed patients in an insane asylum lobster 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:28.080 because it was considered cruel. I believe that because from 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:31.119 the research I've done, it's amazing that lobsters are considered 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:35.080 some great thing now because they're kind of bottom feeding. 0:23:35.320 --> 0:23:38.080 I think they're liking to spiders as close to anything, 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:42.720