Editing Vermes

{{Short description|Obsolete taxon of non-arthropod invertebrates}}
{{other uses}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2023}}
'''Vermes''' ("[[vermin/vermes]]") is an obsolete [[taxon]] used by [[Carl Linnaeus]] and  [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck]]  for non-[[arthropod]] [[invertebrate]] [[animal]]s.

==Linnaeus==
{{further|Vermes in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae|label1=Vermes in the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''}}

In Linnaeus's ''[[Systema Naturae]]'', the Vermes had the rank of [[class (biology)|class]], occupying the 6th (and last) slot of his animal systematics. It was divided into the following [[order (biology)|order]]s, all except the Lithophyta containing (in modern terms) organisms from a variety of phyla:<ref>{{cite book |last=Linnaeus |first=Carl |authorlink=Carl Linnaeus |title=Systema Naturae |url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727554 |edition=10th |year=1758 |volume=v.1 |pages=641–643}}</ref>

* Intestina, including [[horsehair worm]]s, [[earthworm]]s, [[roundworm]]s, [[liver fluke]]s, [[leech]]es, [[hagfish]]es, and [[shipworm]]s
* Mollusca, including [[slug]]s, [[sea slug]]s, [[polychaete]]s, [[sea mouse|sea mice]], [[priapulid]]s, [[salp]]s, [[jellyfish]], [[starfish]], and [[sea urchin]]s
* Testacea, including [[chiton]]s, [[barnacle]]s, [[clam]]s, [[cockle (bivalve)|cockles]], [[nautilus]]es, [[snail]]s and [[serpulidae|serpulid worms]]
* Lithophyta, including various [[coral]]s
* Zoophyta, including [[bryozoa]]ns, [[coralline algae]], ''[[Hydra (genus)|Hydra]]'', [[sea pen]]s, [[tapeworm]]s, and ''[[Volvox]]''

Apart from the [[Mollusc]]a, understood very differently from the modern phylum of that name, Linnaeus included a very diverse and rather mismatched assemblage of animals in the categories. The Intestina group encompassed various [[parasite|parasitic]] animals, among them the [[hagfish]], which Linnaeus would have found in dead fish.  Shelled molluscs were placed in the Testacea, together with [[barnacle]]s and [[Tube worm (body plan)|tube worms]]. [[Cnidaria]]ns (jellyfish and corals), [[echinoderm]]s and [[Polychaeta|polychaetes]] were spread across the other orders.

==Lamarck==

Linnaeus's system was revised by [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck]] in his 1801 ''Système des Animaux sans Vertebres''. In this work, he categorized [[echinoderm]]s, [[arachnid]]s, [[crustacean]]s and [[annelid]]s, which he separated from ''Vermes''.<ref name="Damkaer 2002">{{cite book | last=Damkaer | first=David | title=The copepodologist's cabinet : a biographical and bibliographical history | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_TgUNAAAAIAAJ | publisher=American Philosophical Society | publication-place=Philadelphia, Pa | year=2002 | isbn=978-0-87169-240-5 | oclc=47893671}}</ref>
==Modern==

After Linnaeus, and especially with the advent of [[Darwinism]], it became apparent that the Vermes animals are not closely related. Systematic works on [[phylum|phyla]] since Linnaeus continued to split up Vermes and sort the animals into natural systematic units.

Of the classes of Vermes proposed by Linnaeus, only [[Mollusca]] has been kept as a phylum, and its composition has changed almost entirely. Linnaeus's early classification of the [[soft-bodied organisms]] was revolutionary in its day. A number of the organisms classified as Vermes by Linnaeus were very poorly known, and a number of them were not even viewed as animals.

==Vermiform==

[[File:Dicyema macrocephalum.png|thumb|100 px|right|''[[Dicyema]]'', a small parasite described as "vermiform"]]

While the ''Vermes'' is no longer a taxonomic group, anatomists continue to use the description "vermiform" of animals or organs that are [[worm]]-shaped. The word root is [[Latin]], {{lang|la|vermes}} {{gloss|worms|mode=def}} and {{lang|la|formes}} {{gloss|shaped|mode=def}}.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Glare |editor-first=P.G.W. |title=[[Oxford Latin Dictionary]] |year=1982 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-19-864224-5 |edition=Combined}}</ref>  A well known example is the [[vermiform appendix]], a small, blind section of the gut in humans and a number of other [[mammal]]s.<ref name=SEAL09>{{cite journal | author = H. F. Smith, R. E. Fisher, M. L. Everett, A. D. Thomas, R. R. Bollinger, W. Parker | year = 2009 | title = Comparative anatomy and phylogenetic distribution of the mammalian cecal appendix | journal = Journal of Evolutionary Biology | volume = 22 | issue = 10| pages = 1984–1999 | doi = 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2009.01809.x | pmid=19678866| s2cid = 6112969 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

Several [[Soft-bodied organisms|soft-bodied]] animal [[phylum (biology)|phyla]] including the  [[Annelida|annelids]] (earthworm and relatives) and the [[Nematoda|roundworms]] (mainly parasites), but also the minute parasitic [[mesozoa]]ns and some larger-bodied free-living phyla like the [[Nemertea|ribbon worms]], [[Nemertea|peanut worms]], and [[Priapulida|priapulids]].

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Worms (obsolete taxon)]]
[[Category:Obsolete animal taxa]]
[[Category:animal classes]]