Mammals, Tongues and Earth Worms.

[Jim_B]

From Cecil Adams’ column 12-Apr-1974:

**Dear Cecil:

Do all mammals have tongues? --Cathy B., Baltimore**

Yes.

–CECIL ADAMS

Cite.

Now, I know Cecil Adams was probably joking here. So whatever he says has to be put in that context. But aren’t earth worms mammals? And do earth worms have anything even remotely close to a tongue? (BTW, I have been wondering this ever since I saw this article in the book I bought a couple years back. Sorry about waiting so long to post this thread.)

[bbald123]

Earthworms are most assuredly NOT mammals.

[Colibri]

@Jim B.

From Cecil Adams’ column 12-Apr-1974:

Cite.

Now, I know Cecil Adams was probably joking here. So whatever he says has to be put in that context. But aren’t earth worms mammals? And do earth worms have anything even remotely close to a tongue? (BTW, I have been wondering this ever since I saw this article in the book I bought a couple years back. Sorry about waiting so long to post this thread.)

For the amusement of the rest of us, would you please share your understanding of the term “mammal”?

It’s posts like this that make me weep for the state of science education in this country.

[Jim_B]

I always assumed “mammal” was equivalent to “warm-blooded”, informally at least. I also vaguely recall hearing somewhere that earth worms were technically mammals. Sorry, I don’t recall where I may have heard this.

I also am aware that “mammal” literally means “of breasts”, i.e., relating to animals that suckle their young. But there seem to be exceptions to this. Take the Platypus. Platypuses lay eggs. So I assume that means they don’t nurse .

[Papermache_Prince]

Platypus “The female uses its tail to guide the young to its abdomen enabling them to nurse. Although the mother does not have nipples, milk seeps from the mammary pores and the young suck it from the hair.”

[zut]

Consider the majestic earthworm, his fiery mane of reddish bristles atop a head raised proudly from his burrow, surveying his domain spread before him, blacktop rain-wettened and glistening. Snug within the burrow, his mate suckles their young, her milk-heavy dugs, two per segment, delivering warm sustenance to their greedy mouths. The worm-pups nip at their mother with their sharp milk teeth, not in anger, but in love. In time, their father will leave the nest to hunt, filled with fierce need, returning later with his inevitable bounty to share with his mate. After dining on the fruits of his labors, they will retire, curling multiple times around their children, protecting their hope for the future from the cruel outside world with the heat of their own bodies.

From Lord of the Lawn: The Untold Earthworm Story

[Jinx]

@Jim B.

I always assumed “mammal” was equivalent to "warm-blooded…

You mean, “worm-blooded”!!!

[Colibri]

@Jim B.

I always assumed “mammal” was equivalent to “warm-blooded”, informally at least. I also vaguely recall hearing somewhere that earth worms were technically mammals. Sorry, I don’t recall where I may have heard this.

I also am aware that “mammal” literally means “of breasts”, i.e., relating to animals that suckle their young. But there seem to be exceptions to this. Take the Platypus. Platypuses lay eggs. So I assume that means they don’t nurse .

Merriam Webster:

Main Entry: mam·mal
Pronunciation: 'ma-m&l
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin Mammalia, from Late Latin, neuter plural of mammalis of the breast, from Latin mamma breast
: any of a class (Mammalia) of warm-blooded higher vertebrates (as placentals, marsupials, or monotremes) that nourish their young with milk secreted by mammary glands, have the skin usually more or less covered with hair, and include humans

• mam·ma·li·an /m&-'mA-lE-&n, ma-/ adjective or noun

“Mammals” is a Class of animals, part of the Phylum Chordata. All mammals are warm-blooded, and all feed their young with milk (although Montremes, including the Platypus and Echidna, do not have nipples but merely secrete the milk from the skin), and all have at least a few hairs (vestigial in whales).

The main “warm-blooded” animals that are not mammals are birds. Some animals, such as bees and tuna, can maintain elevated body temperatures for some time, but are not commonly considered “warm-blooded.”

Earthworms are not warm-blooded, in any sense of the term, and certainly do not nourish their young on milk! They do have minute bristles on the skin, but these are in no way equivalent to the hair of mammals. Earthworms are Annelid worms.

Jim B., I would suggest it might behoove you to buy an elementary-level text on Animal Biology. If someone told you that “earthworms were mammals” they were a complete moron.