Long Worms Freaking People Out

Railway workers accidentally dug up these underground giants in the early 1800s. The men found the creature bizarre and thought it was some kind of snake.This bizarre snake is in the list 'Long Worms Freaking People Out'.They took it to the University of Melbourne, hoping professors could explain their find. They must have been shocked to learn they found a new species of giant earthworm.

Different giant Gippsland earthworm specimens vary greatly in size, but all specimens are impressive.Impressively large, these specimens can grow to ten feet long.The biggest specimens measure about 10 feet long, a huge feat for a worm. They are long and thick. Some worms reach an inch in diameter.

The giant Gippsland earthworm exists in one spot in Australia: Gippsland.Gippsland offers a place where you could live right on top of them and never know it.These worms are small and live mostly under private ranches and farms. People in Gippsland rarely see them because they burrow five feet underground.You could live five feet underground.They only surface if heavy rain floods their tunnels.

The giant Gippsland earthworm is a hermaphroditic species.This hermaphroditic species has very complicated worm sex.This means each worm has male and female organs. During mating, both worms pass sperm to each other. This is hard for the Gippsland earthworm because their large bodies make copulation in underground tunnels tough. Scientists think these flexible worms stretch to fit two together in one tunnel.

Baby worms come from eggs and take 12 months to appear. When they emerge, they are already long. Newborns can measure about a foot long at birth.

Researchers find worm poop fascinating. The little worm turds are professionally known as castings.castingsThese castings seem to make life harder for the worm. The castings seal tunnels the worm makes, puzzling scientists why these worms block the tunnels they spend time creating. Scientists see these worms return to the same spot to drop castings, but a worm researcher states, "clearly we do not have the full story on their toilet habitats."

People might think these worms look gross, but everything about them is gross. They move by making underground tunnels with their mouths, and this process creates a disgusting, gurgling noise.They make disgusting, gurgling noises audible aboveground.The sound can be heard from the surface. This noise sounds like a bathtub draining water.

For years, an entire museum held these monsters.Wildlife Wonderland Park housed these monsters.This place let curious minds learn about these amazing worms. The building looked like a worm. Exhibits let visitors crawl through human-sized earthworm burrows. They also showed a giant replica of the worms' digestive system. An investigation closed the park. They lacked the proper licenses to show wild animals. They also broke the Australian Wildlife Act of 1975.

Worms do eat dirt. They chew the earth, swallowing nutritional bacteria, fungi, and algae as they move. Worms lack teeth, but they chew their food. Like many birds, worms have an organ called a The gizzard helps them digest dirt.The gizzard aids digestion. It holds small rocks the worm swallows. These rocks grind the worm's food for easy digestion.

Human intrusion into their natural homes means the number of giant Gippland worms isfallingBecause they live underground, scientists find it hard to count how many remain wild. Most think the populations are dropping. Local regulators work hard to protect this worm and its habitat. They even formed a committee to manage the worm's well-being.