Often it is asked how we movedfrom one cell to multicellular life forms, even though we all did it ourselves. this seemed like a particularly fascinating colonial life form.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/giant-mutant-blobs-found-floating-204435737.html
Actually, the individuals asking up the colony are multicellular, but still an example of specialization and differentiation into something akin to organs.
Almost all bryozoans are colonial. A few bryozoan colonies can crawl around, rather unusual for colonies.
Can any swim, or do the aquatic ones just drift around?
FWIW, I’ve seen what sure looked like bryozoans in large, slow and rather stagnant whirlpools in rivers in Oregon.
I’ve seen the blobby colonies in Alabama and North Carolina. As far as I know, the floating colonies just float, no propulsion and sometimes attached. Most of the benthic colonies are attached, also. There’s quite a diversity of fossil species.
Hmm… There are a number of bacteria that undergo terminal differentiation (i.e. create distinct cell types permanently) and exist in multicellular filaments.
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