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To that end, being physically connected allows the colonial organism to distribute nutrients and energy obtained by feeding zooids throughout the colony. The hydrozoan Portuguese man o' war is a classic example of a colonial organism, one of many in the taxonomic class. [10]
The only known natural example of King's Lomatia (Lomatia tasmanica) found growing in the wild is a clonal colony in Tasmania estimated to be 43,600 years old. [1]A group of 47,000 Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) trees (nicknamed "Pando") in the Wasatch Mountains, Utah, United States, has been shown to be a single clone connected by the root system.
The colonial organism as a whole is called a zoon / ˈ z oʊ. ɒ n /, plural zoa (from Ancient Greek zôion ζῷον meaning animal; plural zôia, ζῷα). Zooids can exhibit polymorphism. For instance, extant bryozoans may have zooids adapted for different functions, such as feeding, anchoring the colony to the substratum and for brooding ...
Multicellular organisms arise in various ways, for example by cell division or by aggregation of many single cells. [4] [3] Colonial organisms are the result of many identical individuals joining together to form a colony. However, it can often be hard to separate colonial protists from true multicellular organisms, because the two concepts are ...
Siphonophorae (from Greek siphōn 'tube' + pherein 'to bear' [2]) is an order within Hydrozoa, which is a class of marine organisms within the phylum Cnidaria. According to the World Register of Marine Species, the order contains 175 species described thus far. [3] Siphonophores are highly polymorphic and complex organisms. [4]
Fragmentation in multicellular or colonial organisms is a form of asexual reproduction or cloning, where an organism is split into fragments upon maturation and the split part becomes the new individual. The organism may develop specific organs or zones to shed or be easily broken off.
In planktonic organisms, there is speculation that the periplast increases drag, thereby counteracting the force generated by the flagellum and increasing feeding efficiency. [ 15 ] Choanoflagellates are either free-swimming in the water column or sessile , adhering to the substrate directly or through either the periplast or a thin pedicel. [ 16 ]
The man o' war is described as a colonial organism because the individual zooids in a colony are evolutionarily derived from either polyps or medusae, [15] i.e. the two basic body plans of cnidarians. [16] Both of these body plans comprise entire individuals in non-colonial cnidarians (for example, a jellyfish is a medusa, while a sea anemone ...