How do Siphonophores like Man O War works? How are they a colony?I understand a Man O War is made up of multiple zooids, but what exactly is a zooid? How are they multiorganisms working together? How is it formed?
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Imagine your liver could – and did – reproduce separately from you.
In most complex animals, your body begins as a single cell that essentially clones itself over and over, and individual cells differentiate into the specific types to fulfill the functions of your organs. None of your organs can reproduce separately. None of them can create gametes. Even among species that can regenerate, the new organs come from stem cells that differentiate as needed.
With siphonophores, each organ lives and dies separately from the rest. The “individual” begins as a single cell, but instead of developing organs it buds off into separate zygotes. Somehow, they decide to become the “organs”.
Each organ can bud off to become a new one. Each organ can create its own gametes. They can’t survive on their own, but they all kind of do their own thing within the overall organism.
So, like, imagine when you were a fetus you split into several twins. You all stuck together and some of you became arms and some became stomachs. Each of you worked together and shared things so, like, the arm you would pass food to the stomach you, and stomach you would give some digested nutrients back to arm you. And then stomach you was like, *yeah I’m gonna make another one of me/us* and none of the other yous can do much about it.
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