Siphonophore colony. Floating colony of siphonophores, a type of hydrozoa. Siphonophores are marine invertebrates that live in colonies made up of a n

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Siphonophore colony. Floating colony of siphonophores, a type of hydrozoa. Siphonophores are marine invertebrates that live in colonies made up of a number of highly specialised individual organisms (zooids). Each type of zooid (both medusae and polyps) has a specific role to play and none can live without the other. Because of this, siphonophore colonies look like one large organism and can often be mistaken for jellyfish. The most famous example of this is the Portuguese man-of-war. Photographed off the coast of Reunion island, Indian Ocean.

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Photo credit: © DAVID CARON/LOOK AT SCIENCES/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, -water, animal, aquatic, asia, asian, biological, biology, cnidaria, cnidarian, colonial, colony, fauna, floating, hydrozoa, hydrozoan, indian, invertebrate, invertebrates, island, marin, marine, micro-organism, micro-organisms, microbiological, microbiology, nature, ocean, reunion, sea, siphonophora, siphonophorae, siphonophore, siphonophores, specialised, super-organism, topical, translucent, tropics, underwater, water, wildlife, zooid, zooids, zoological, zoology