Colonial Animals - 7/14/15

By John Racanelli

Published July 14, 2015 at 8:24 AM EDT

Cascading tendrils of blue-green tentacles and a translucent, neon bell give the Portuguese man-of-war its otherworldly appearance.

The man-of-war may resemble a jelly and even appear to be a single organism, but don’t be fooled: It’s actually a siphonophore, a colony of four separate, yet genetically identical, animals.

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John Racanelli

As chief executive officer, John Racanelli leads a team of 600 full and part-time employees and 1,000 volunteers in pursuing the National Aquarium’s mission to inspire conservation of the world’s aquatic treasures. More than 1.5 million people annually visit the Aquarium’s venue in Baltimore, Maryland, while millions more are touched by the Aquarium’s education programs, outreach activities, social media campaigns and conservation initiatives.

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