The wikipedia entry on the Portuguese man o\' war says: ... the Portuguese man o

Question

The wikipedia entry on the Portuguese man o' war says:

... the Portuguese man o' war is ... not actually a single multicellular organism but a colonial organism made up of many highly specialized minute individuals called zooids. These zooids are attached to one another and physiologically integrated to the extent that they are incapable of independent survival. (emphasis added)

This is contradictory. If it's got multiple cells, and those cells are highly specialized to the point of being incapable of surviving on their own, then how does that differ from a multicellular organism? That last sentence seems like it describes the cells in my body.

In fact, the entry colonial organisms says:

The difference between a multicellular organism and a colonial organism is that individual organisms from a colony can, if separated, survive on their own, while cells from a multicellular life form (e.g., cells from a brain) cannot. (emphasis added)

So, is the Portuguese man o' war a colony or a multicellular organism? And if it's a colony, can its zooids survive independently, the wikipedia text notwithstanding?

Explanation / Answer

Physalia and Siphonophorans in general are multicellular Metazoans.

But the whole discussion is about modularity on the level of individuals: Siphonophorans are colonial organisms, which means they are composed of multiple individual polyps and medusae. This is in fact quite common among Hydrozoa, but in Siphonophora the degree of integrity and function division among the components is of extraordinary level.

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