This 40-Meter 'Colony' Is Actually One Single Animal

Added: 2026-04-30

The deep-sea siphonophore Praya dubia is a 40-meter-long colonial organism composed of thousands of genetically identical zooids that have specialized into distinct functional units—some for feeding, some for swimming, and some for reproduction—forming a single unified animal without a brain, heart, or skeleton, demonstrating an alternative evolutionary strategy where organisms develop as communities of specialized parts rather than traditional body structures.