Like a champion sports squad , some creatures really are greater than the total of their voice . know as compound organisms , these outlandish existence seem to be a single , bounded being – but are in fact hookup of many tiny individuals all knead together for a common crusade . Weirdly enough , many of these conglomerates are also extremely vicious .
Portuguese Man o’ War
The Portuguese man group O ’ war ’s reputation as one of the mankind ’s most revere Portuguese man-of-war is a complete myth – because it is n’t a jellyfish at all . It ’s in reality a siphonophore , which means it ’s a colony of millions of identical clones promise zooids .
Despite being separate individuals , these zooids ca n’t survive on their own and need to aggroup together to mold an tremendous sum . Once in formation as a unifiedPortuguese man oxygen ’ warfare , these zooids specialize so that each perform a specific occasion that helps the colony to prosper .
For instance , some zooid activate the puppet to float , while others organize the being ’s notoriously long tentacles , which are loaded with venom - filled nematocysts .
Some corals are hard and some are soft, but all are colonies of polyps.Image credit: QUI NGUYEN/Unsplash.com
CoralSome corals are hard and some are soft, but all are colonies of polyps.Image credit: QUI NGUYEN/Unsplash.com
They may not be mobile ( withsome exceptions ) , butcoralshave a flock in common with the Lusitanian man o ’ war . Most significantly , they too are colonial animals and are composed of heavy number of tiny creatures called polyps .
Each individual polypus require to eat , and therefore has its own mouth . In many cases , these openings are surround by small tentacle sporting nematocysts , which are used to paralyze and kill the coral ’s prey .
The Long Stringy Stingy Thingy
The longest and stingiest of these thingies was sighted off the slide of Australia in 2020 , and is estimated to have mensurate some 120 cadence ( 393 feet ) from final stage to remainder . Despite this incredible distance , though , the puppet ’s deficiency of girth intend that it ’s still nowhere nearly as gravid as the blue whale , and nonplus no threat to the baleen whale ’s title of the world ’s biggest animal .
Moss AnimalsBryozoans may look otherworldly, but they’re pretty common.Image credit: IrinaK/Shutterstock.com
Reports of weird , alien - corresponding blobsappearing all over North America in short do a panic back in 2024 , although the wobbly balloon - like critter turn out to be harmless bryozoans . Also recognise as moss animals , these specimens consist of Brobdingnagian numbers of zooids all work together , with groups of colonies form a delicate social structure live as a thicket .
Among the various types of zooid find in bryozoans are avicularia , which are specialized for Department of Defense and use their neb - shape tips to peck at away at invaders and assailants .
Erenna
Yet another siphonophore was discovered in the thick ocean back in 2005 . lurk at depth of between 1,600 and 2,300 ( 5,250 to 7,550 feet ) , this member of theErennagenus was especially unequaled in that it was thefirstmarine invertebrate ever found to make employment ofred fluorescenceto attract prey .
While profane and green bioluminescence are common in the sea , cerise is fairly uncommon as the retentive wavelength of this color of light does n’t jaunt very far in the depth . It was therefore think that most creature living far below the airfoil miss the ability to see red light , yet the discovery of this strange siphonophore transfer that assumption .
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You can see where the name comes from.Image Credit: © Georgina Jones viaiNaturalist(CC BY-SA 4.0)
Bryozoans may look otherworldly, but they’re pretty common.Image credit: IrinaK/Shutterstock.com
