What Am I ?

 I breathe through my skin and have 5 pairs of simple hearts

 I am eaten by the Makiritare people of Venezuela, the Maori of New Zealand, the aborigines of Australia and Papua New Guineans

 Our ancestors were on the planet around 209 million years ago

 I am a keystone species; that means that without us humans would struggle to survive

 Sophie Smith, aged 10, charmed 567 of us in half an hour – a World Record

 I can live for 10 years or more

 I have been an ingredient in medicines for centuries

 Charles Darwin wrote a book about us which sold as many copies as The Origin of Species

 Our babies can move a weight 500 times heavier than their bodies. This is equivalent to a human pushing a Humpback Whale to one side

 Mucus from our bodies is often added to anti-wrinkle and skin regeneration cream

 We are so sensitive to sunlight that just an hour of daylight can paralyse us

 We are neither male nor female but both

 We can be as short as 1cm or as long as 3 metres

 Seeds that we have eaten and passed through our bodies are more likely to germinate

 The collective noun for us is a ‘clew’ from an Old English word meaning a ball of string

And for more fascinating insights read ‘The Book of the Earthworm’ by Sally Coulthard.

The image from Gower is Worms Head

 

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