How is the nervous system characterized in beings of the phylum Annelida? How can one compare cephalization in annelids to cephalization in nematodes and platyhelminthes?
Annelids have a nervous system made of two ventral chords and one relatively big nervous cell concentration in its anterior portion resembling a primitive brain. Nematodes have an anterior neural ring connected to two neural chords, a ventral and a dorsal one, while in planarias (platyhelminthes) there are only two small anterior “cerebral” ganglia from which neural chords split. Cephalization in annelids thus is more outstanding than in nematodes or in flatworms.