Q.First segment of earthworm is :
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From a Single Cell to a Complete Animal
Imagine you are building a house. You start with bricks. A single brick is just a brick. Stack bricks together in a pattern, and you get a wall. Combine walls, a roof, doors, and windows, and you have a room. Join several rooms with plumbing and wiring, and you have a functioning house. The house is far more than a pile of bricks — it has a structure that lets it do something.
Your body is built the same way. The "bricks" are cells. The "walls" are tissues. The "rooms" are organs. And the "house with all its systems" is the whole animal. This step-by-step increase in complexity is called the levels of organisation.
The Four Levels, One by One
1. Cellular Level — The Brick
The simplest living unit is a single cell. In some animals, the entire body is just one cell. An amoeba, for example, eats, moves, and reproduces using just its single cell. There is no division of labour inside the body — that one cell does everything.
At this level, the cell is the organism. There are no tissues, no organs — just a self-sufficient cell.
2. Tissue Level — The Wall
When many similar cells group together to perform a common function, they form a tissue. For instance, muscle cells join to make muscle tissue, which can contract. Nerve cells join to make nervous tissue, which carries signals.
A jellyfish or a hydra reaches this level. Its body has distinct tissues (like a nerve net and muscle fibres), but these tissues are not yet organised into specific organs. The animal can do more than a single cell — it can sense touch and move — but it still lacks specialised structures like a heart or a stomach.
3. Organ Level — The Room
Different tissues combine to form an organ. The stomach, for example, contains muscle tissue (to churn food), epithelial tissue (to line the inner surface), and nervous tissue (to sense when food is present). All these tissues work together so the stomach can digest food.
A flatworm (planaria) is a good example. It has a simple eye spot (an organ for light detection) and a branched gut (an organ for digestion). But it does not have a full set of organ systems — its organs work somewhat independently.
4. Organ-System Level — The House
Multiple organs join forces to form an organ system. The stomach, intestines, liver, and pancreas together make the digestive system. The heart, blood vessels, and blood make the circulatory system. Each system has a specific job, and all systems work together to keep the animal alive.
Most familiar animals — frogs, birds, dogs, humans — are at this level. This is the highest grade of organisation. It allows for extreme specialisation: the heart only pumps blood, the lungs only exchange gases, and the brain only processes information. No single cell or tissue could do all that alone.
The levels are hierarchical — each level contains the one below it. A tissue is made of cells. An organ is made of tissues. An organ system is made of organs. You cannot skip a level.
The Big Picture: Why This Matters …
In the earthworm the mouth lies in the first true body segment, while the small overhanging lobe in front is not counted as a segment. …
The first segment is the peristomium.
The prostomium is a small fleshy lobe overhanging the mouth and is NOT a true segment. The first true body segment, which encloses the mouth, is the peristomium. The clitellum is a glandular band in the mature worm (segments 14-16).
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- CBSE 2026Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.In earthworm, locomotion is assisted by which of the following ?(a) Parapodia(b) Setae(c) Pseudopodia(d) Cilia
›Reveal solutionSolution
Earthworm locomotion is assisted by setae, so the answer is (B).
The earthworm moves by waves of contraction and relaxation of its circular and longitudinal muscles. Movement is aided by setae (chaetae) — small, curved, S-shaped chitinous bristles projecting from most body segments. The setae can be protruded or withdrawn and grip the soil, providing anchorage so …
- CBSE 2025Set zoology-hz21 markQ.Eumetazoa show tissue or organ grade of organization. (True/False)
›Reveal solutionSolution
The statement is True: Eumetazoa are animals with true tissues, so unlike Parazoa (sponges, which are at the cellular level of organisation), Eumetazoans show at least the tissue grade of body organisation, and most phyla above Cnidaria show the organ grade.
Animals are classified by 'levels/grades of organisation' based on how their cells are arranged to perform functions:
- Cellular level: cells are loosely aggregated, e.g., sponges (Parazoa).
- Tissue level: cells performing the same function are organised into tissues, e.g., Cnidaria (Eumetazoa).
- Organ level: tissues group into organs, each performing a specific function, e.g., Platyhelminthes.
- Organ-system level: organs associate to form organ systems, each system carrying out a specific physiological function, e.g., Annelida, Arthropoda, Mollusca, Echinodermata, Chordata. …
- CBSE 2023Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.First segment of earthworm is :(a) prostomium(b) peristomium(c) clitellum(d) pronotum
›Reveal solutionSolution
The first segment is the peristomium.
The prostomium is a small fleshy lobe overhanging the mouth and is NOT a true segment. The first true body segment, which encloses the mouth, is the peristomium. The clitellum is a glandular band in the mature worm (segments 14-16).
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