Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Animalia Stupendium. My name is Argomandanes, newly crowned
Speaker 2: member of the ruling Thomaturgic Triumvirate, slayer of the Gray
Speaker 2: Dread and tireless creature chronicler. However, mere monsters hold no
Speaker 2: mystery for me. These days. Dragons our drab, even the
Speaker 2: gray Dread proved rather underwhelming if I'm being honest. So
Speaker 2: instead I turn my attention once more to the strange
Speaker 2: fauna of a land called Earth. Travel with me, gentle reader,
Speaker 2: as we consider the Portuguese man o.
Speaker 3: War common name Portuguese man o' war scientific name Isalea phisolus.
Speaker 3: Frequency in range tropical and subtropical oceans around the world,
Speaker 3: with some forays into temperate regions. Size float may reach
Speaker 3: heights of six inches or fifteen centimeters, tentacles as long
Speaker 3: as one hundred and sixty five feet or fifty meters.
Speaker 3: Diet small fishes, plankton, and crustaceans. Treasure hord nematsis venom
Speaker 3: challenge rating three.
Speaker 2: The naming of terrestrial organisms often confuses wizards, such as myself.
Speaker 2: The Portuguese Man of War is neither distinctly from Portugal,
Speaker 2: a nation of the earth realm, nor is it a man.
Speaker 2: Needless to say, it does not engage in war either. No,
Speaker 2: it merely earned this name due to its resemblance to
Speaker 2: sail powered Portuguese warships, though it is known by many
Speaker 2: other names among the peoples who encountered its sting, including
Speaker 2: ah the floating Terror. But allow me to describe the
Speaker 2: creature itself. Above the water line, we see a large
Speaker 2: blatter filled with such gases as carbon monoxide, oxygen, nitrogen,
Speaker 2: and argon. It appears translucent, very splendid, with rare shades
Speaker 2: of blue, purple, and pink, inviting to think again, because
Speaker 2: beneath the water line, the organism trails a long flail
Speaker 2: of stinging tentacles venomous damage. Yes, the tentacles. Boast Neumaticists
Speaker 2: specialize stinging cells that administer a potent venom that paralyzes
Speaker 2: small prey. Even human beings will experience intense pain from
Speaker 2: the manner War's sting, and more severe symptoms are possible,
Speaker 2: but of course we are not on the menu. Once
Speaker 2: it is paralyzed, the small prey in thereby its tentacles
Speaker 2: it deploys its specialized digestive gastrozooids, which spread over the
Speaker 2: praise body and digested enzyme damage. Now I come to
Speaker 2: one of the more remarkable facts concerning the Portuguese man
Speaker 2: o War. For starters, the creature is not a sea jelly.
Speaker 2: It is a sciphonophar, and as such is a colonial
Speaker 2: organism made up of genetically identical but highly specialized polyps.
Speaker 2: Consider what you might mistake for a single organism's reproductive system,
Speaker 2: a digestive system, grasping arms, and a flotation bladder are
Speaker 2: in fact individual zooids. Each zooid is a multi cellular
Speaker 2: animal unto itself that exist as part of a colonial whole,
Speaker 2: each compromising unessential system of that whole. The gas filled
Speaker 2: blatter is the nomatophor, the venom laced tentacles are made
Speaker 2: up of tenacular paupons, the feeding polyps are gastrozoids, and
Speaker 2: the compound reproductive structure is the gonodendron, composed of multiple
Speaker 2: reproductive zooids. Again, each zooid in a single man o
Speaker 2: war is genetically identical, essentially clones that carry out different functions,
Speaker 2: which allow the man o' war to function as one
Speaker 2: to compare this to my own mundane world of sorcery,
Speaker 2: consider the legendary warrior who stole a magic cauldron from
Speaker 2: a dragon's layer. He climbed inside the quadron, and two
Speaker 2: of him emerged, identical to each other. Knowing that the
Speaker 2: foul dragon would soon come for him with talon and flame,
Speaker 2: our warrior or now warriors, formed an idea. The two
Speaker 2: identical warriors climbed inside the cauldron, and four of them emerg'd.
Speaker 2: Soon there were eight, sixteen, a whole squad of warrior clones.
Speaker 2: But alas they realized, they still had no chance against
Speaker 2: a dragon. And that's when a certain wizard advised them
Speaker 2: of a few particular spells to transform each of these
Speaker 2: clones into an essential organ, limb, or tissue of a
Speaker 2: greater whole. And thus, following a frenzied hour of transmutation,
Speaker 2: each warrior clone became an oversized part, a hand here,
Speaker 2: a liver there, and finally, a single giant warrior rose
Speaker 2: up to face the coming wrath of the dragon. Consider
Speaker 2: it a rough analogy for the colonial organism that is,
Speaker 2: the Portuguese man of war. Or perhaps consider the idea
Speaker 2: of three goblins and a cloak on each other's shoulders,
Speaker 2: posing as a cleric. Anyway, back to the Portuguese man
Speaker 2: of War reproductively, each colonial individual is either male or
Speaker 2: female and reproduces via broad gas spawning females release eggs
Speaker 2: in the fall, and the males release sperm. Fertilization then
Speaker 2: happens at the water's surface, the same transitional realm that
Speaker 2: the adults call their home. While the creatures are most
Speaker 2: common to tropical and subtropical oceanic waters, they are not
Speaker 2: free swimming. They float where the current and the wind
Speaker 2: takes them, which sometimes means far more temperate waters. Plus,
Speaker 2: as Earth's oceans warm, their range only expands, and the
Speaker 2: Portuguese man or War makes its home in waters previously
Speaker 2: too cold for their way of life. Now there are
Speaker 2: more mysteries concerning the man o War to consider, But
Speaker 2: for now I must retire my wizard's quill and allow
Speaker 2: my familiars some respite. But I shall return with even
Speaker 2: more wonders of the natural world.
Speaker 3: Hi, this is Robert Lamb. Thanks again to the wizard
Speaker 3: Augo Mandanese for joining us in this episode. Sources for
Speaker 3: this episode included what is the Portuguese Man of War
Speaker 3: by the National Ocean Service Oceania. International Morphology and Development
Speaker 3: of the Portuguese Man of War by Salia Fislis by
Speaker 3: Monroe at All Scientific Reports, twenty nineteen. They're here Portuguese
Speaker 3: Man of War by Sarah Treynor Boyce Yesterday's Island, Today's
Speaker 3: Nantucket twenty twenty four and Portuguese Man o War by
Speaker 3: Salia Feisalus venom induces I See an Influx into Cells
Speaker 3: by Permeabilizing plasma Membranes by Edwards and Hessinger Toxicon two thousand.
Speaker 3: Thanks as always to the excellent JJ Possway for producing
Speaker 3: this episode. If you want to contact Argomandanes with recommendations
Speaker 3: for future episodes, you can send them to us at
Speaker 3: contact at stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com.
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