Eucestoda

Eucestoda
Temporal range: Roadian-Present
Molecular analyses suggest a Late Silurian/Early Devonian origin
Taenia saginata adult
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Class: Cestoda
Subclass: Eucestoda
Subdivisions

See text

Eucestoda is the larger of the two subclasses of flatworms in the class Cestoda (the other subclass being Cestodaria) whose members are commonly known as tapeworms. Larvae have six posterior hooks on the scolex (head), in contrast to the ten-hooked Cestodaria. All tapeworms are endoparasites of vertebrates, living in the digestive tract or related ducts. Examples are the pork tapeworm (Taenia solium) with a human definitive host, and pigs as the secondary host, and Moniezia expansa, the definitive hosts of which are ruminants.