1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:09,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:18,600 Speaker 2: Welcome to Animalia Stupendium. My name is Argomandanes, newly crowned 3 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 2: member of the ruling Thomaturgic Triumvirate, slayer of the Gray 4 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:30,960 Speaker 2: Dread and tireless creature chronicler. However, mere monsters hold no 5 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:36,199 Speaker 2: mystery for me. These days. Dragons our drab, even the 6 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:39,519 Speaker 2: gray Dread proved rather underwhelming if I'm being honest. So 7 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,160 Speaker 2: instead I turn my attention once more to the strange 8 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 2: fauna of a land called Earth. Travel with me, gentle reader, 9 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 2: as we consider the Portuguese man o. 10 00:00:55,240 --> 00:01:01,280 Speaker 3: War common name Portuguese man o' war scientific name Isalea phisolus. 11 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:05,520 Speaker 3: Frequency in range tropical and subtropical oceans around the world, 12 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:09,880 Speaker 3: with some forays into temperate regions. Size float may reach 13 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:13,160 Speaker 3: heights of six inches or fifteen centimeters, tentacles as long 14 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 3: as one hundred and sixty five feet or fifty meters. 15 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:21,880 Speaker 3: Diet small fishes, plankton, and crustaceans. Treasure hord nematsis venom 16 00:01:21,959 --> 00:01:23,480 Speaker 3: challenge rating three. 17 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:30,000 Speaker 2: The naming of terrestrial organisms often confuses wizards, such as myself. 18 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:34,600 Speaker 2: The Portuguese Man of War is neither distinctly from Portugal, 19 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:38,039 Speaker 2: a nation of the earth realm, nor is it a man. 20 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:42,840 Speaker 2: Needless to say, it does not engage in war either. No, 21 00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:46,600 Speaker 2: it merely earned this name due to its resemblance to 22 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,760 Speaker 2: sail powered Portuguese warships, though it is known by many 23 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:56,160 Speaker 2: other names among the peoples who encountered its sting, including 24 00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 2: ah the floating Terror. But allow me to describe the 25 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 2: creature itself. Above the water line, we see a large 26 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 2: blatter filled with such gases as carbon monoxide, oxygen, nitrogen, 27 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:17,960 Speaker 2: and argon. It appears translucent, very splendid, with rare shades 28 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:23,160 Speaker 2: of blue, purple, and pink, inviting to think again, because 29 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:28,400 Speaker 2: beneath the water line, the organism trails a long flail 30 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:37,360 Speaker 2: of stinging tentacles venomous damage. Yes, the tentacles. Boast Neumaticists 31 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 2: specialize stinging cells that administer a potent venom that paralyzes 32 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:48,359 Speaker 2: small prey. Even human beings will experience intense pain from 33 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,640 Speaker 2: the manner War's sting, and more severe symptoms are possible, 34 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:57,080 Speaker 2: but of course we are not on the menu. Once 35 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 2: it is paralyzed, the small prey in thereby its tentacles 36 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:08,520 Speaker 2: it deploys its specialized digestive gastrozooids, which spread over the 37 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 2: praise body and digested enzyme damage. Now I come to 38 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 2: one of the more remarkable facts concerning the Portuguese man 39 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:26,240 Speaker 2: o War. For starters, the creature is not a sea jelly. 40 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:31,359 Speaker 2: It is a sciphonophar, and as such is a colonial 41 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:37,560 Speaker 2: organism made up of genetically identical but highly specialized polyps. 42 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:44,520 Speaker 2: Consider what you might mistake for a single organism's reproductive system, 43 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 2: a digestive system, grasping arms, and a flotation bladder are 44 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:57,160 Speaker 2: in fact individual zooids. Each zooid is a multi cellular 45 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 2: animal unto itself that exist as part of a colonial whole, 46 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:08,440 Speaker 2: each compromising unessential system of that whole. The gas filled 47 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:13,119 Speaker 2: blatter is the nomatophor, the venom laced tentacles are made 48 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:20,120 Speaker 2: up of tenacular paupons, the feeding polyps are gastrozoids, and 49 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:27,120 Speaker 2: the compound reproductive structure is the gonodendron, composed of multiple 50 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 2: reproductive zooids. Again, each zooid in a single man o 51 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:39,599 Speaker 2: war is genetically identical, essentially clones that carry out different functions, 52 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:43,680 Speaker 2: which allow the man o' war to function as one 53 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:48,480 Speaker 2: to compare this to my own mundane world of sorcery, 54 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:53,440 Speaker 2: consider the legendary warrior who stole a magic cauldron from 55 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:57,520 Speaker 2: a dragon's layer. He climbed inside the quadron, and two 56 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 2: of him emerged, identical to each other. Knowing that the 57 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:04,679 Speaker 2: foul dragon would soon come for him with talon and flame, 58 00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:09,839 Speaker 2: our warrior or now warriors, formed an idea. The two 59 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 2: identical warriors climbed inside the cauldron, and four of them emerg'd. 60 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:19,280 Speaker 2: Soon there were eight, sixteen, a whole squad of warrior clones. 61 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:23,720 Speaker 2: But alas they realized, they still had no chance against 62 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 2: a dragon. And that's when a certain wizard advised them 63 00:05:28,320 --> 00:05:33,080 Speaker 2: of a few particular spells to transform each of these 64 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:37,159 Speaker 2: clones into an essential organ, limb, or tissue of a 65 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:42,720 Speaker 2: greater whole. And thus, following a frenzied hour of transmutation, 66 00:05:43,400 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 2: each warrior clone became an oversized part, a hand here, 67 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:53,479 Speaker 2: a liver there, and finally, a single giant warrior rose 68 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:57,160 Speaker 2: up to face the coming wrath of the dragon. Consider 69 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 2: it a rough analogy for the colonial organism that is, 70 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:05,000 Speaker 2: the Portuguese man of war. Or perhaps consider the idea 71 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:08,160 Speaker 2: of three goblins and a cloak on each other's shoulders, 72 00:06:08,279 --> 00:06:11,840 Speaker 2: posing as a cleric. Anyway, back to the Portuguese man 73 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 2: of War reproductively, each colonial individual is either male or 74 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 2: female and reproduces via broad gas spawning females release eggs 75 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,200 Speaker 2: in the fall, and the males release sperm. Fertilization then 76 00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 2: happens at the water's surface, the same transitional realm that 77 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:36,919 Speaker 2: the adults call their home. While the creatures are most 78 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:41,719 Speaker 2: common to tropical and subtropical oceanic waters, they are not 79 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:46,080 Speaker 2: free swimming. They float where the current and the wind 80 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 2: takes them, which sometimes means far more temperate waters. Plus, 81 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:56,720 Speaker 2: as Earth's oceans warm, their range only expands, and the 82 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:01,240 Speaker 2: Portuguese man or War makes its home in waters previously 83 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:05,720 Speaker 2: too cold for their way of life. Now there are 84 00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:10,360 Speaker 2: more mysteries concerning the man o War to consider, But 85 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 2: for now I must retire my wizard's quill and allow 86 00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:19,679 Speaker 2: my familiars some respite. But I shall return with even 87 00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:23,080 Speaker 2: more wonders of the natural world. 88 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:28,040 Speaker 3: Hi, this is Robert Lamb. Thanks again to the wizard 89 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:32,080 Speaker 3: Augo Mandanese for joining us in this episode. Sources for 90 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,680 Speaker 3: this episode included what is the Portuguese Man of War 91 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:41,320 Speaker 3: by the National Ocean Service Oceania. International Morphology and Development 92 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 3: of the Portuguese Man of War by Salia Fislis by 93 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:49,360 Speaker 3: Monroe at All Scientific Reports, twenty nineteen. They're here Portuguese 94 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:53,400 Speaker 3: Man of War by Sarah Treynor Boyce Yesterday's Island, Today's 95 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:57,600 Speaker 3: Nantucket twenty twenty four and Portuguese Man o War by 96 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:01,320 Speaker 3: Salia Feisalus venom induces I See an Influx into Cells 97 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:06,800 Speaker 3: by Permeabilizing plasma Membranes by Edwards and Hessinger Toxicon two thousand. 98 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:10,200 Speaker 3: Thanks as always to the excellent JJ Possway for producing 99 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:14,280 Speaker 3: this episode. If you want to contact Argomandanes with recommendations 100 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:17,120 Speaker 3: for future episodes, you can send them to us at 101 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:24,119 Speaker 3: contact at stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com. 102 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:27,200 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 103 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:30,080 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 104 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:32,960 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.