Siphonophore
order of hydrozoans From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
order of hydrozoans From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Siphonophores are an order of cnidarian invertebrates in the class Hydrozoa. The Portuguese man o' war is an example.
A siphonophore is not a single animal. It is a colony of four kinds of zooids. Zooids are very small, highly modified individuals. All the zooids in a colony are genetically identical. These zooids are specialized polyps and medusoids.[2]
Though structurally similar to other cnidarians, the zooids do not live by themselves: they are attached to each other. Each type of zooid is not self-sufficient. It depends for survival on the others doing what it cannot do by itself.
So close do the zooids fit together that the colony looks like a single individual. It was a triumph of 19th century biology to discover the real nature of the siphonophores.
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