Siphonophores are unusual animals made up of individual organisms called "zooids," which each have a distinct function — ...

So a purple mass of thousands of zooids, which sounds like a thing that James Cameron wanted to put in Avatar but the studio was like "Dude, enough," is just roaming around the ocean floor, and we ...

And while all of a siphonophore’s zooids share identical DNA, they still mutate to perform very different functions. An image of Marrus claudanielis, a sea creature made up of multiple organisms.

For instance, some zooids enable the creature to swim, while others form the organism’s notoriously long tentacles, which are loaded with venom-filled nematocysts.

The Portuguese Man O’ War is a remarkable colonial organism, made up of various highly specialized organisms called zooids. Aaron Ansarov’s photographs capture the structures of these zooids ...

Zooids are the specialized “bodies” that make up a colonial organism, and each zooid is budded off the central stem.

The zooids can reproduce by cloning, so the colony can regenerate injured parts and theoretically live forever, shrinking and growing based on available food and physical disturbance.

These zooids are genetically identical and join together to form a single organism. Each group of zooids is highly specialised and play specific roles in helping the entire creature survive.

What is a bryozoan? According to the National History Museum, the bryozoan is a large phylum in the animal kingdom that can contain over 6,500 species of invertebrate animals, also known as zooids.

These workers are fed by still other zooids that collect food. The creatures, some of which can grow up to 2 millimeters, feed on tiny plants smaller than they are, scientists say.

Bringing up the rear are the zooids that specialize in breeding and feeding. All together, Nanomia forms a sort of aquatic village, with the young at the helm, the adults at the oars and everyone ...