Invertebrates
Siphonophore
Siphonophorae · also called siphonophores
Stretching further than the length of a blue whale yet built from thousands of specialised, genetically identical parts working as one, a siphonophore challenges the very idea of where one animal ends and a colony begins.
Overview
Siphonophores, order Siphonophorae, are colonial predators native to deep and open ocean habitat spanning every major ocean basin in the world. Their unique colonial structure of specialised zooids, record-breaking body length in some species, and widespread bioluminescence make them one of the most biologically unusual groups of animals found anywhere in the ocean.
An animal that is also a colony
Few organisms blur the line between individual and group as thoroughly as the siphonophore, whose thousands of specialised, physically connected parts cooperate so seamlessly that the entire structure moves, hunts, and reproduces as though it were a single creature.
Status
Least Concern for most species, though detailed population data remains limited by the difficulty of surveying deep and open ocean habitat.
Siphonophore: common questions
Is a siphonophore one animal or many?
In a sense, both, this order is made up of colonies of many genetically identical individual units, called zooids, each specialised for a single task, yet the colony as a whole coordinates and functions as a single organism.
How long can a siphonophore grow?
This order includes species capable of growing longer than a blue whale, among the longest animals known, formed by chaining together large numbers of specialised feeding and stinging zooids into one continuous colony.
Is the Portuguese man o' war the same as other siphonophores?
The Portuguese man o' war is one well-known example within this order, though most siphonophore species drift and hunt entirely underwater rather than floating at the ocean surface as the man o' war does.
Do siphonophores glow in the dark?
Many species within this order are capable of producing their own light, used both to attract prey in the darkness of the deep sea and to startle or confuse potential predators.