What is a Portuguese man o' war?

0:46 Welcome to Science Is Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira! And I'm Finn. Before we dive in, a big hello to Magnolia, who asked about the Portuguese manor war and how it is not one animal at all, but a whole lot of them working together, even though everyone thinks it is a jellyfish. This one is for you.

1:07 And a very happy sixth birthday to Luca, who listens every day on the way to school with his brother Hugo. We hope you have a fantastic birthday, Luca.

1:17 If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

1:22 Wait, Mira, going back to what Magnolia said, how can something look like one animal but actually not be one animal?

1:31 What does that even mean? That's exactly what we are exploring today. We are talking about a creature that completely breaks the rules of biology. In fact, the longest animal in the entire world isn't the blue whale.

1:45 It's not? But blue whales are like a hundred feet long.

1:49 Nope. The longest recorded animal is a creature that can grow up to 150 feet long. And it's actually thousands of clones stuck together, floating in the deep sea.

2:01 Let's dive in. Thousands of clones stuck together. Are we talking about some kind of deep sea monster from a science fiction movie?

2:09 Well, it definitely looks alien. We're talking about an entire category of animals called siphonophores. And the most famous one is exactly what Magnolia asked about. The Portuguese man of war, also known by its scientific name, Physalia physalis.

2:27 I always thought those were just really dangerous jellyfish that wash up on the beach. They look like weird blue or pink balloons that sit on top of the water, right?

2:37 They do. They have a distinct blue-purple colouration, but they are absolutely not jellyfish. A Portuguese mana war is a siphonophore, which means it's a colonial organism. It's made of thousands of individual, genetically identical animals called zoids.

2:55 Wait, zoids? So you're telling me it's a bunch of tiny animals wearing a trench coat, pretending to be one big animal?

3:03 That is actually the perfect way to describe it. Every single zoid in that colony starts from the exact same fertilised egg. But as the colony grows, the zoids transform into completely different shapes to do different jobs.

3:19 Do they still have their own brains and stomachs? Can they just leave the colony if they get bored?

3:24 No, they can't survive on their own. They are totally physically connected, sharing resources. Imagine if your stomach, your hands, and your lungs were all technically separate animals that just agreed to stick together and operate as a single individual to survive.

3:41 That is seriously weird. So, how many types of zoids are in a Portuguese man of war?

3:47 Four main types, and each one has a highly specialized mission. It's the ultimate teamwork in nature, and wait until you hear how big they get. The first zoid is the pneumatophore. That's the part that looks like a balloon floating on the water. It can grow up to 12 inches long and sticks about six inches out of the water.

4:08 Does it just hold regular air? It contains atmospheric air, but it uniquely produces and fills the balloon with a high concentration of carbon monoxide. It acts as a sail. The Portuguese man oar can't swim on its own, so it floats completely at the mercy of wind and ocean currents. It gets its name because people thought it looked like an 18th-century Portuguese warship under full sail.

4:35 Okay, the balloon part sounds nice, but what about the stingers? That's the part I'm worried about.

4:42 Ah, those are the dactylozoids. These zoids form the hunting tentacles, and they are loaded with tiny microscopic capsules called pneumatocysts, which are coiled venomous harpoons.

4:55 How long are these hunting tentacles? Like 10 feet?

4:59 Try an average of 30 feet, but they can grow all the way up to 165 feet or 50 metres long.

5:11 That's like half a football field of stinging tentacles trailing behind a single floating balloon.

5:16 It is! And the tentacles act like a giant invisible net. When a small fish or crustacean swims into them, the venom paralyses the prey instantly. What happens to the fish after that? That's where the third type of zoid comes in, the gastrozooids. They are the digestive experts. The tentacles shrink up and pull the paralyzed fish up to the gastrozoids, which spread out and digest the food, passing the nutrients to the rest of the colony.

5:47 And the fourth type? The gonozooids, their only job is reproduction, making sure there are more Portuguese mana wars floating in the future.

5:56 So if the Portuguese man owar floats on the surface of the water, do any of these wild colony creatures live deep down in the dark parts of the ocean?

6:06 Oh yes! And they get incredibly massive. In April of 2020, scientists from the Schmidt Ocean Institute went exploring in the Ningaloo Canyons off the coast of Western Australia. How deep did they go? Using a deep-sea, remote-operated underwater robot named Sebastian, they explored freezing, pitch black depths up to 4,500 metres.

6:32 That's almost 15,000 feet deep.

6:36 Whoa, that's way down in the dark zone. What did they find down there?

6:40 Actually, on their way back up to the surface at around 630 metres deep, the chief scientist, Dr. Nerida Wilson, and her team saw something impossible on the live camera feed. It was a giant siphonophore from the genus Apollemia. How big is giant? Bigger than a great white shark? Way bigger. This deep-sea siphonophore was coiled up in a massive feeding spiral that looked almost like a glowing UFO or a giant pile of string floating in the water.

7:13 They estimated it was 150 feet or about 45 metres long.

7:19 150 feet? But wait, the blue whale is only about 100 feet long. Are you telling me a weird string of clones is longer than the biggest whale on Earth?

7:30 Yes. Scientists believe this specific giant siphonophore is the longest ocean animal ever recorded. Just a continuous ribbon of thousands of working zoids floating perfectly still in the deep sea, waiting to catch its prey.

7:47 That is completely mind-blowing. And honestly, a little freaky. Just a 150-foot web floating in the dark.

7:55 It's amazing. It shows us how little we actually know about the deep ocean. That's exactly why discoveries like this matter so much, Finn. Siphonophils show us that there isn't just one single way to be a living creature. They completely blur the line between a single animal and a whole community working together as one.

8:15 It makes you wonder what else is hiding down there in the deep ocean, if they just found a 150-foot one in 2020.

8:22 Exactly! The ocean still holds countless secrets. And speaking of secrets, time for some mind-blowing fun facts. Did you know that a Portuguese man of war tentacle can still sting you, even if it's completely dead and washed up on the beach? Wait, really? For how long? Like an hour? Try for days or even weeks.

8:46 Because the stinging cells, those nematocysts, are essentially just tiny mechanical traps. They can still fire venom into your skin, even when they are disconnected from the main colony.

8:57 Note to self, never touch weird blue string on the beach. Ever.

9:02 A very good rule. Here's another fun fact: not all siphonophores are blue or transparent. Deep in the ocean, some species use bioluminescence to glow in the dark when they are startled. Like a glow stick? That's awesome! Yes. And while most glowing sea creatures make blue or green light, scientists discovered a deep sea siphonophore called Arena that actually glows red.

9:28 It was only the second sea creature ever found to produce red light.

9:32 It literally uses glowing red neon signs to hunt. Nature is so much cooler than any science fiction movie. Alright, Finn, quiz time.

9:41 Let's see how much you remember about our colony friends.

9:44 Okay, I'm ready. Bring on the clone questions.

9:48 First question. What is the true identity of the Portuguese man of war since it isn't actually a jellyfish? Next one. What do we call the individual cloned animals that make up a siphonophore colony? Question three. What is the maximum length the tentacles of a Portuguese man of war can reach? Here's number four.

10:24 In 2020, what Ocean Institute discovered the massive 150-foot giant siphonophore. Last question. When scientists found that giant deep sea siphonophore, what shape was it floating in? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is, it is a siphonophore. For question two, the individual cloned animals are called zoids.

11:00 Number three, the answer is the tentacles can grow up to a staggering 165 feet or 50 meters long. Question 4. It was the Schmidt Ocean Institute using their underwater robot, Sebastian. And the final answer is it was floating in a massive spiral, almost looking like a UFO.

11:24 I still can't get over the fact that a 150-foot-long spiral of clones is just casually floating around in the deep ocean. It's like something out of a comic book.

11:34 It really makes you rethink what it means to be an animal, doesn't it? The ocean is full of wild surprises, and scientists are finding new ones every single day.

11:45 If you were mind-blown by a 150-foot spiral of clones, please leave us a five-star review. Just scroll down and tap the stars.

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12:11 See you next time on Science Is Not Boring. Bye.