Siphonophores are gelatinous animals composed of specialized parts growing together in a chain. Each part (zooid) is structurally similar to other solitary animals, but the zooids are all attached to each other rather than living independently.
This siphonophore, Erenna richardi, can be identified by the massive clusters of tentilla (the side branches of the tentacle) at the end of the tail (siphosome). In Monterey Bay, this species has been observed at average depths of about 1,100 meters (3,600 feet). These siphonophores are armed with a battery of powerful stinging tentacles and researchers have seen them ensnaring fish just above the seafloor.
Historically, gelatinous animals have been challenging to study. Their delicate nature makes them difficult to collect, especially from the ocean’s depths. By using deep-diving robots—remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs—MBARI and our collaborators are revealing the dazzling diversity of delicate drifters that lies beneath the surface.
Artfight in 4 days so I'm finishing up my last few refs (I've got 1-2 after this?)
Anyways, self-indulgence time. I've been meaning to make an artist sona type thing for ages (and started thinking about it again when drawing my spidersona thing). But having my favorite creature as a siphonophore made workshopping a design a bit of a struggle.
Thankfully the worms in my brain give me many good ideas.
Miku as a Siphonophore! I'm pretty sure I saw someone else do this first but I cannot find it for the life of me. So credit to whoever decided to combine these two things. I wanted to do one based off the of the Siphonophore that ended up on Japanese Broadcast in 1991 with the glowing orbs
They always say that the Portugese Man'O'War is a colony of different animals, including the reproductive parts
How the fuck does that work?
okay to make a long and complicated thing shorter, stupid, and marginally less complicated:
Colonial organisms, like the man o' war, all sorta occur when one organism, produced via sexual reproduction, asexually reproduces itself into a ton of clones. These clones, zooids, are hypothetically "free-living", and could do the same thing as the original. Eventually, though, they specialize into different roles, changing their form and function to suit different roles in the body of the man o' war. Some of them produce carbon monoxide, which is like, a tenth of what fills the float (or pneumatophore, if you want to impress someone on a date sometime) on top of the organism, some allow it to reproduce, some can feed, and some are just Toxin Cells For Killing And Hurting. Anyways, it basically looks like one animal, but is technically a billion trillion [citation needed] tiny versions of the same zooid printing copies of itself.
TLDR: portuguese man o' war is kinda like osmosis jones, i think.
The Sea Creature of the Day is the Portuguese Man o' War!!!
(gif credit: @life-on-our-planet, direct link )
aaaaaa!!! 🥰🥰🥰 i love these guys. researching them was what lead to my long lasting obsession with siphonophores after i saw one on a vacation as a child.
there's something oddly beautiful to me about their method of gathering food. just floating there with these incredibly painful danger noodles hanging below. and it's a siphonophore so it's like... an apartment building of people that's also one creature all peacefully waiting for the currents to take them to food. it's beautiful and so so so cool and i love them 🥰🥰🥰🥰