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Lifeform of the week: Portuguese Man o War
Jul 07, 2015
by Alex Reshanov in Blogs » Earth
Dont call the Portuguese Man o War a jellyfish. And dont get near its stinging tentacles, even if its dead.
I was splashing around in the waves of the Gulf coast when I saw it a translucent bluish blob floating on the surface of the water. Is that a jellyfish?! I yelped. Yeah, my boyfriend replied, Looks like a Man o War. We followed it as it drifted to the shore. I was becoming less convinced. No, its just a bag, or maybe some trash. The form was too synthetic looking to be an animal. But what washed up on the sand was neither plastic bag nor jellyfish. The Portuguese Man o War may look like a jellyfish*, but its actually a colony of 4 different polyps, each working together to form a functional individual, if youre willing to stretch your definition of that word.
Cast and Crew
It may be challenging to think of an animal classified by a single species name Physalia physalis as being four separate creatures, but such is the strange reality of this squishy thing. The parts are so interdependent that any one cant survive without the company of the other three. Sort of like how a ship cant sail properly without all its crewmembers. Except that in this case the skipper, first mate and the rest are all tangled together into one gelatinous mass. Allow me to introduce you to the crew:
Polyp 1 The pneumatophore. The floaty part that sticks out from the water. It is for this gas-filled bladder that the collective organism is named, as it looks a bit like the old warship with lofty sails.
Polyp 2 The dactylozooids. These are the infamous stinging tentacles. They average about 30 feet (9 meters) in length but can be as long as 165 feet (50 meters).
Polyp 3 The gastrozooids. These guys are in charge of digestion. They are a cluster of bag-like stomachs found underneath the floaty polyp.
Polyp 4 The gonozooids. The Man o Wars reproductive department.
More
http://earthsky.org/earth/lifeform-of-the-week-portuguese-man-o-war-four-in-one?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=9505abeb0e-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-9505abeb0e-393525109
bvf
(6,604 posts)but I still remember being horrified by pictures and descriptions in grade school science.
At this point, I could probably maintain my composure.
But as a really curious kid?
:shudder:
Thanks for the blast from the past!
Warpy
(111,466 posts)I was badly stung and spent the rest of the vacation on the beach, popping the ones that had washed ashore with a board. They are beautiful and range from blue through magenta to violet, but that was lost on me with my burning legs and arms.
Their tentacles can remain active in sand for some time, so I apologize to subsequent visitors.