Snake vs Worm
The two terms snake and worm do not sound alike, but they sometimes do look similar, especially when the small snakes are considered. In fact, there are many instances that people attempt to kill the innocent worms, because of the poor creature being misidentified as a snake. It happens the other way around as well, when small serpents attack people while the creatures being handled carelessly thinking that they are worms. Therefore, it would be important to be aware of the difference between snakes and worms.
Snake
They are the legless reptiles, and they evolved from reptilian tetrapods before 110 million years. There is a high taxonomic diversity with 2,900 species. Except for Antarctica, snakes are native to almost all the countries. Snakes have no limbs, but the rudimentary limbs are present in pythons, suggesting that they were the first to evolve as snakes. The body lengths of snakes vary in a vast range, starting from 10-centimetre long thread snake, up to 8-metre long anaconda. Scales on the skin cover the entire body. In addition, those scales are colourful and give the snakes of each species a unique appearance. Moreover, snake scales are important in identifying their species as the number of scale arranged in rows are characteristic for each species. They inhabit both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. However, there are snake species that could glide through the air between trees without crossing the land. Predation is the only way of feeding in snakes, for which they have developed different techniques to immobilize preys. They are mostly non-venomous, but venomous snakes can kill almost any animal. Australia has most of the top ten venomous snakes in the World. Snakes do not chew their food, but swallow as it is and let the stomach do the digestion. They can sustain in deserts as well as rainforests. In the deserts, where the water is not readily available, snakes absorb all the water in their prey animal’s body. Additionally, their excretory product is uric acid, which has not water. Snakes are important components of the environment as per their ecological role. In addition, people of East and South-East Asian countries prepare snakes for their meals.
Worm
Worm is a term used loosely to refer most of the invertebrates with elongated bodies. Worms are included in many invertebrate phyla viz. Platyhelminthes (Flatworms), Nematoda (roundworms), Arthopoda (caterpillars, grubs, and maggots), Annelida (Earthworms), Chaetognatha (arrow worms), and many others. It is a little difficult to come up with the number of species of worms, but it easily reaches hundreds of thousands of species. That means the species diversity of worms is very high, and it could be demonstrated by observing the wide range of their sizes. The smallest worms are microscopic while the longest species (marine Nemerteans) are about 55 metres long. The occupied ecological niches of the worms range widely. They can invade the interior of other animals in instances of parasitic worms, whereas non-parasitic worms could live anywhere including land, burrows, freshwater, or saltwater. The variety of nutritional habits of worms differ with all the available food habits are present among them. There are worms with parasitic, herbivorous, carnivorous, cannibalistic, or omnivorous food habits. Worms being a loosely arranged massive group of invertebrates, they play enormous roles in most of the processes of the ecosystem.
|
What is the difference between Snake and Worm? • Snakes are a vertebrate group while worms are invertebrates. Therefore, snakes have stronger bodies compared to worms. • Worms are much more diversified than snakes are. • Worms have more food habits than snakes do. • The size variation of the worms is much higher compared to that of snakes. • Snakes have scales but not the worms. • Snakes could be venomous but not the worms.
|