Invertebrates
Blue Button
Porpita porpita · also called blue button jelly
Drifting helplessly with the wind and current, a blue button looks every bit like a tiny jellyfish, but is actually a colony of many specialised organisms working together, found floating across warm ocean surfaces worldwide.
Overview
The blue button, Porpita porpita, is a colonial organism found drifting across warm surface waters of tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide. Its disc-shaped float ringed with blue tentacles, colonial rather than single-organism structure, and relationship to the Portuguese man o’ war make it one of the more biologically unusual creatures found floating at the ocean’s surface.
Many organisms, one “animal”
What looks like a single small creature is actually a colony of specialised individual organisms called zooids, each performing a different function, floating, feeding, or reproducing, but together functioning so seamlessly that the blue button is often mistaken for one ordinary animal.
Status
Not Evaluated for conservation status, widely distributed across warm ocean surfaces worldwide.
Blue Button: common questions
Is the blue button a jellyfish?
No, despite its jellyfish-like appearance, the blue button is actually a colony of many specialised individual organisms called zooids that function together as a single unit, placing it in a different group from true jellyfish.
How does the blue button move?
It has no means of active swimming and instead drifts entirely at the mercy of wind and surface currents, often washing up on beaches in large numbers after sustained onshore winds.
Is the blue button's sting dangerous to people?
Its sting is generally mild to most people, though sensitive individuals may still experience a reaction, and it is best not handled directly.
What does the blue button eat?
It is a carnivore, using short, stinging tentacles to catch small plankton drifting near the ocean's surface.