RE: the longest animal?

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 12:54 PM 3/20/98 -0800, Nathan Myrhvold wrote:
>The longest inverterbrate is likely to be a Portugese Man 'O War jellyfish
>(Physalia physalis and P. utriculus) which has tenticles up to 50 meters
>long.

Not to get pedantic (what, ME? Pedantic? :-), but Physalia is not a proper
jellyfish (i.e., a member of the Scyphozoa).  It is a member of the
Siphonophora, which form mass colonies.  Thus, the 50 m lengths are for
colonies, rather than individuals.  True jellyfish are individual medusae.

Still, stay away from them, colony or not!

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661