Portuguese Man o' War: An Organism Made of Organisms?
When is an organism not an organism? Or, when is it a bunch of different organisms living together? SciShow introduces you to the weird world of siphonophores. Hosted by: Michael Aranda ----------...
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This is a Portuguese Man o’ War. It looks like a jellyfish, right? Heck, it even acts like a jellyfish. But it is not a jellyfish. In fact… it isn’t even a single thing. The Portuguese Man o’ War belongs to an order of extraordinarily weird animals called siphonophores. There are about 175 species of them in the world, most of which live deep in the ocean. Many siphonophores look like gelatinous strands of rope, and some of them can reach lengths of 50 meters. That’s longer than a blue whale! But their sizes and shapes aren’t the only things that make them extraordinary. The weirdest thing about siphonophores is that scientists still haven’t figured out if they’re a collection of colonial organisms -- like coral -- or a single comple...
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This is a Portuguese Man o’ War. It looks like a jellyfish, right? Heck, it even acts like a jellyfish. But it is not a jellyfish. In fact… it isn’t even a single thing. The Portuguese Man o’ War belongs to an order of extraordinarily weird animals called siphonophores. There are about 175 species of them in the world, most of which live deep in the ocean. Many siphonophores look like gelatinous strands of rope, and some of them can reach lengths of 50 meters. That’s longer than a blue whale! But their sizes and shapes aren’t the only things that make them extraordinary. The weirdest thing about siphonophores is that scientists still haven’t figured out if they’re a collection of colonial organisms -- like coral -- or a single comple...
