w6jze
Location: CHR AU
Posts: 30
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Very nice indeed. Well imaged and explained.
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nfeld_photo
Location: DE
Posts: 11
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Randell,
thanks a lot!
Check out my updated explanation above. Blue Bottles are really amazing creatures !
Cheers,
Niels
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Observed
Location: US
Posts: 283
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Wed 22-March-2006 23:36
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Rating: 8
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wonderful picture and details. Very interesting. How do the 4 seperate parts reproduce a new man of war?
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nfeld_photo
Location: DE
Posts: 11
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Observed, All
Observed asked how the Blue Bottle can reproduce if it consists of four separate parts. Not that easy to answer. However I give it a try:
First I need to explain, what a “normal” jellyfish is and how they reproduce:
“Normal” jellyfish pass through two different body forms during their life, i.e. they undergo a metamorphosis transforming their body from a first into a second stage – just like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. In its first stage a jellyfish is a polyp - mostly residing on a substratum. This polyp contains all kind of organs, i.e. something like a stomach, tentacles and many more. Eventually the metamorphosis takes place and the polyp detaches from the substratum, undergoes a (bit of a) transformation and becomes a floating medusa, also known as jellyfish. This medusa still can still look like the polyp just detached from the ground. Hence a jellyfish is formed out of ONE single polyp. At sexual reproduction a larva is formed drifting through the water until it finds an appropriate substratum to attach to and form a polyp…and the whole cycle can start again :-)
A Blue Bottle is pretty different. Blue Bottles do not pass through two different stages but stays in the polyp stage. Let’s have a detailed look: It all starts with a larva created at sexual reproduction – just as mentioned above in the “normal” jellyfish paragraph. The larva forms a polyp which is NOT attached to any substratum but floating through the ocean. This single polyp has got a pretty long phylum. In the course of the time along this phylum additional polyps accrue by budding. All these additional polyps stay attached to either the phylum or any of the new polyps. These polyps start to specialize and form colonies of polyps with similar functionality. One special colony is the Gonozooids being responsible for sexual reproduction. After releasing sperm and eggs a new larva is formed and the cycle starts again.
This means, the Blue Bottle does not consist of one polyp covering all body functions but – if you wish - a set of replicas with each replica specializing on one of the four functions outlined in the picture description above.
I tried to simplify the whole story a bit – however it became pretty lengthy. Anyway, I hope you can see what I mean.
Cheers,
Niels
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Observed
Location: US
Posts: 283
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thanks for taking the time to explain this. very interesting!
nick
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