Colonial OrganismsColonial behavior refers to a number of individual organisms of the same species aggregating in the same place to form an interdependent community of individuals. From human colonies to penguin colonies to insect colonies to the Portuguese Man o' War, this behavior is found throughout the biological world.
Colonial groups share resources for mutual benefit; they generally improve defences, gain the ability to attack larger prey, and enhance food-gathering ability.
A colony of single-celled organisms is a colonial organism. It's likely that early colonial organisms were the first evolutionary step from single celled life to multicellular species. Some colonial organisms closely resemble multicellular organisms; you can tell the difference by separating single cells from the rest of the organism. If the cells always die, the source was a multicellular organism.
Communities of microbes can, communally, possess millions of genes, providing th community with a genetic diversity much greater than that of all known multi-cellular organisms. Their collective size can also be impressively large, measuring in multiple cubic miles.
Jellyfish are one of the most well-known colonial organism, with three different types of polyps in the organism providing different functions to benefit the colony as a whole. Other colonial organisms include corals and algae.
Web Resources On Colonial Organisms
Portuguese Man-of-War
The Colonial Algae
Book Resources On Colonial OrganismsBiology and Systematics of Colonial Organism by Symposium on the Biology and Systematics of Colonial Organisms
Volterra-Hamilton Models in the Ecology and Evolution of Colonial Organisms by Peter L. Antonelli, et al,
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