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Portuguese Man o' War

Physalia physalis

Photo by Chris Carille
Published on Project Noah
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17.1833, -88.3333

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (10)
Chris Carille
I could imagine! I was stung by some small stuff in the South China Sea - I know size isn't everything, but I would not want to be stung by a big guy like this
Chris Carille
It was really neat to find it... one of the only organisms found on a long night hike looking for sea turtles
KarenL
Fascinating! Great info Juan!
Chris Carille
Juan nailed it right on the head. Man o' Wars are colonies of smaller organisms and can give a pretty nasty sting. This one had been washed ashore at night. This particular one was rather large, being almost a foot in length.
Juan Mantilla - MJ Reichenbach
Actually it is not a jelly fish but a very interesting organism colony, wikipedia can explain better "Despite its outward appearance, the Man o' War is not a true jellyfish but a siphonophore, which differ from jellyfish in that they are not actually a single creature, but a colonial organism made up of many minute individuals called zooids.[1] Each of these zooids is highly-specialized and, although structurally similar to other solitary animals, are attached to each other and physiologically integrated to the extent that they are incapable of independent survival."
Carolina
Awesome! I'd like to know more about them!

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Global Coral Reef Monitoring

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Photographed
PublishedAugust 30, 2011

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