colonial organism
Unified multicellular aggregate
A colonial organism is a collection of individual organisms that live attached to one another and function as a coordinated unit.
Unlike truly multicellular organisms, the individual members (called zooids or polyps) could often survive independently but gain advantages from group living.
Corals, Portuguese man-of-war, and some algae are colonial organisms.
The term also applies metaphorically to any tightly integrated group: The corporation operated like a colonial organism, with each division serving the whole.
- jellyfishDrifting marine stinger
- blue bottleMetallic-sheened carrion fly
- coralMarine skeletal formation
- fire coralVenomous colonial marine animal
- sea penFeather-shaped colonial marine invertebrate
polyp · sea squirt · hive · hive mind · swarm · tentacles · reef · man-of-war · hydra · bryozoan · collective · superorganism · division of labor · budding · stinging · translucent · drifting · interconnected
colonial organismwhole organism
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