Talk:Siphonophorae

Latest comment: 1 month ago by AudreyS99 in topic Wiki Education assignment: Deep-Sea Biology

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment edit

  This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 13 January 2020 and 12 May 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): AnnemarieMoy, Sara Abuzahra, Justinlambright.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:25, 17 January 2022 (UTC)Reply

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment edit

  This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 31 August 2020 and 10 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Lbenedict, SmileyJosh, Antoniaisrael, SmileyJosh10. Peer reviewers: TrammellBC, Arshdeep60, Gcicione, MitchG265, Danielk1m1005.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:25, 17 January 2022 (UTC)Reply

Add real references edit

Some real scientific references should be added, instead of quoting from a blog (pinktentacle).


—Preceding unsigned comment added by Krahd (talkcontribs) 13:47, 3 December 2009 (UTC)Reply

siphonophora are closely related to jelly fish. they attract other fish by using these red lights on the ends of their tenicles..apparently they look like small red fish that other fishes eat. this is how they attract their prey. they come in all shapes and sizes



Should http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siphonophera be merged in with this article?


copied from website edit

Parts of this article are copied verbatim from

http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/mhng/hydrozoa/sipho/siphonophora.htm


Someone with expertise please explain scientific importance




I tried, but I really was only repeating what I read elsewhere.


Resolved self-contradiction edit

An explanation of my edit: previously stated in one sentence "Each zooid is an individual" and in the next "Thus it is debatable whether zooids or siphonophora are individuals." As I understand it, the 'individual' has many current definitions in biology depending on viewpoint, and both zooid and colony can be seen as individuals depending on your precise definition. The real debate is whether siphonophores are truly colonial or multicellular (see Colony (biology) for definitions.) I've not attempted to decide on this - I'm a medic, not a marine biologist - but have reworded accordingly. Feel free to disagree!

Dr Almost 05:13, 5 September 2007 (UTC)Reply


Biologist here. Siphonophores are multicellular AND colonial. The idea is that with siphonophores, we're seeing the same evolutionary event play out that happened when specialized cells joined together to form multicellular organisms (as opposed to colonial-multicellular organisms, where cells hang together but are not specialized). The crux is that their coloniality is on the level of individuals, not on the level of cells, so I removed the bit about them being a borderline case.

Mabolle (talk) 08:37, 16 September 2014 (UTC)Reply

Question edit

Someone with expertise, please explain how these things reproduce. If they are organisms worthy of a species name, they should have some way to reproduce. How does that happen with symbiotic critters like this?

Metrodorus (talk) 06:49, 3 September 2013 (UTC)Reply

I came here with the same question, it seems if there are multiple parts that cannot survive without each other but each is an organism on it's own... they would all have to reproduce at the exact same time to create offspring, no?  Travis McCrea (T)(C) 21:11, 27 September 2014 (UTC)Reply
I also came with the same question. This is obviously a key bit of info missing from the article. Someone with knowledge please add a "Reproductions" section. Fig (talk) 13:01, 12 September 2017 (UTC)Reply

New[??] species filmed off Angola at depth of more than 1000 metres edit

Hi, anyone who knows mote then me about these creatures, please look into this and possibility of exgtracting something, https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28022-flying-spaghetti-monster-caught-on-video-off-the-angolan-coast/ Thanks, regards, Rui ''Gabriel'' Correia (talk) 23:18, 14 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

New siphonophore videoa @SA edit

New Glimpses of Rare Deep Sea Siphonphores, Sci Am bolg entry? By Jennifer Frazer on October 6, 2017

Very cool stuff. I know practically nothing about siphonophores.... --Pete Tillman (talk) 22:17, 9 October 2017 (UTC)Reply

Seems like this entire page needs a factual overhaul edit

See this page which says "They are not, as some might tell you, colonies of single-celled organisms, nor do they "come together" to form a colony" and points to a more thorough discussion at this site.

I'll leave it to someone more qualified than I am to find out what the actual scientific consensus is as of right now, but the second page does give a very strong argument for calling siphonophorae individuals instead of colonies:

"Is a single zooid or an entire colony the siphonophore “individual”? The answer is that you have to specify what features you are interested in before you can expect a meaningful answer. Do you mean ecologically? The entire colony functions as a single organism whether it is predator or prey. So the colony is an ecological individual. The same can be said for behavior. How about evolutionarily? There are two different components to this question. If we ask how evolution acts on siphonophores now, they are individuals. All the parts of the colony are genetically identical and the colony lives or dies as a whole (except for the eudoxids described later). So siphonophores are evolutionary individuals with respect to how natural selection shapes them today. The other way to look at evolutionary individuals is by descent. We can do this by taking a look at two animals and asking which structures descend from the same feature of a common ancestor. Just as this leads us to recognize that bat wings are modified arms, it shows that siphonophore zooids are polyps and medusae, structures that can be free living animals in other species. So this argument leads to the conclusion that the zooids of siphonophores are individuals. This is not contradictory to our previous conclusions, we are just looking at a different feature of individuality."

--SoLongSidekick (talk) 16:50, 3 July 2018 (UTC)Reply

Students' Bibliography edit

Haddock, Steven H. D., Dunn, Casey W., Pugh, Philip R., Schnitzler, Christine E. (2005). Bioluminescent and Red-Fluorescent Lures in a Deep-Sea Siphonophore. Science, vol. 309, p. 263. DOI: 10.1126/science.1110441

Purcell, Jennifer E. (1980). Influence of Siphonophore Behavior upon Their Natural Diets: Evidence for Aggressive Mimicry. Science, vol. 209, pp. 1045-1047. DOI: 10.1126/science.209.4460.1045

Palma, Sergio, Cabello, Fabiola, Silva, Nelson, Canepa, Antonio (2017). Siphonophores of the Chiloé Inland Sea: biodiversity, spatial distribution, and environmental association. Marine Biodiversity vol. 48, pp. 1731-1742. DOI: 10.1007/s12526-017-0662-y.

Araya, Juan Francisco, Aliaga, Juan Antonio, Esther Araya, Marta (2016). On the distribution of Physalia physalis (Hydrozoa: Physaliidae) in Chile. Marine Biodiversity vol. 46 pp. 731-735. DOI: 10.1007/s12526-015-0417-6

Costello, John H., Colin, Sean P., Gemmell, Brad J., Dabiri, John O., Sutherland, Kelly R. (2015). Multi-jet propulsion organized by clonal development in a colonial siphonophore. Nature Communications, vol. 6, 8185. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9158

Mapstone, Gillian M. (2014). Global Diversity and Review of Siphonophorae (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa). Public Library of Science, vol. 9, 2. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087737

Antoniaisrael (talk) 20:42, 8 October 2020 (UTC)AntoniaReply


Dunn, C. W., Pugh, P. R., & Haddock, S. H. (2005). Molecular phylogenetics of the siphonophora (Cnidaria), with implications for the evolution of functional specialization. Systematic Biology, 54(6), 916–935. DOI:10.1080/10635150500354837

Haddock, S. H. D., Dunn, C. W., Pugh, P. R., & Schnitzler, C. E. (2005). Bioluminescent and red-fluorescent lures in a deep-sea siphonophore. Science, 309(5732), 263. DOI:10.1126/science.1110441

Kuyper, D., Thibault, D., & Gibbons, M. J. (2020) Latitudinal changes in siphonophore assemblages across the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. African Journal of Marine Science, 42(2), 209-219. DOI:10.2989/1814232X.2020.1774805

Mapstone, G. (2014). Global diversity and review of Siphonophorae (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa). PloS one, 9(2), 1-37. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087737

Pagès, F., Gili, J. (1991). Vertical distribution of epipelagic siphonophores at the confluence between Benguela waters and the Angola Current over 48 hours. Hydrobiologia, 216-217(1), 355-362. DOI:10.1007/BF00026486

Purcell J. E. (1980). Influence of siphonophore behavior upon their natural diets: evidence for aggressive mimicry. Science, 209(4460), 1045-1047. DOI:10.1126/science.209.4460.1045

Sutherland, K. R., Gemmell, B. J., Colin, S. P., & Costello, J. H. (2019). Propulsive design principles in a multi-jet siphonophore. Journal of Experimental Biology, 222(6), 1-8. DOI:10.1242/jeb.198242

Ideas for Future Improvements edit

- Add a section discussing siphonophore tentilla and a section discussing nematocysts.

Purcell, Jennifer E. (1980). Influence of Siphonophore Behavior upon Their Natural Diets: Evidence for Aggressive Mimicry. Science, vol. 209, pp. 1045-1047. DOI: 10.1126/science.209.4460.1045
Mapstone, Gillian M. (2014). Global Diversity and Review of Siphonophorae (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa). Public Library of Science, vol. 9, 2. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087737

- Add a section about the presence and environmental impact of siphonophores on the Chilean coast.

Palma, Sergio, Cabello, Fabiola, Silva, Nelson, Canepa, Antonio (2017). Siphonophores of the Chiloé Inland Sea: biodiversity, spatial distribution, and environmental association. Marine Biodiversity vol. 48, pp. 1731-1742. DOI: 10.1007/s12526-017-0662-y.
Araya, Juan Francisco, Aliaga, Juan Antonio, Esther Araya, Marta (2016). On the distribution of Physalia physalis (Hydrozoa: Physaliidae) in Chile. Marine Biodiversity vol. 46 pp. 731-735. DOI: 10.1007/s12526-015-0417-6

- Add a section about siphonophore ecological roles (e.g. Muggiaea Atlantica's negative effect on salmon farming).

Palma, Sergio, Cabello, Fabiola, Silva, Nelson, Canepa, Antonio (2017). Siphonophores of the Chiloé Inland Sea: biodiversity, spatial distribution, and environmental association. Marine Biodiversity vol. 48, pp. 1731-1742. DOI: 10.1007/s12526-017-0662-y.

- Add more on the siphonophore Portuguese Man o' War (Physalia physalis). It can be found in tropical/subtropical regions, floats on the surface due to its air bladder, navigates due to its erectile sailing crest, its dacylzooids are capable of discharging venomous toxins that can potentially cause vasomotor dysfunction and collapse in humans, etc.

Araya, Juan Francisco, Aliaga, Juan Antonio, Esther Araya, Marta (2016). On the distribution of Physalia physalis (Hydrozoa: Physaliidae) in Chile. Marine Biodiversity vol. 46 pp. 731-735. DOI: 10.1007/s12526-015-0417-6

- Add more photos to make the text more engaging.

- Add the date that siphonophores first evolved.


Antoniaisrael (talk) 01:21, 29 October 2020 (UTC):AntoniaisraelReply

Move discussion in progress edit

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Siphonophora (genus) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 09:23, 17 April 2022 (UTC)Reply

Wiki Education assignment: Deep-Sea Biology edit

  This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 16 January 2024 and 2 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Czerwinz (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by AudreyS99 (talk) 15:22, 25 March 2024 (UTC)Reply