Originally published September 14 2005
Brainless anemones fight as a unit, study shows
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to a joint study conducted by the University of Wollongong in Australia and the University of California-Davis, sea anemones in a colony will fight together and behave in a coordinated manner, even though they have no brain, Physorg.com reports.
Sea anemones -- Anthopleura elegantissima -- live in large colonies of genetically identical clones on boulders around the tide line.
Where two colonies meet they form a distinct boundary zone.
Anemones that contact an animal from another colony will fight, hitting each other with special tentacles that leave patches of stinging cells stuck to their opponent.
David Ayre of the University of Wollongong, Australia, and Rick Grosberg of the University of California-Davis previously studied individual anemone polyps' fighting strategies one-on-one.
Now they've been able to study two entire colonies as they clash.
The study shows very complex, sophisticated and coordinated behaviors can emerge at the level of the group, even when the group members are very simple organisms with nothing resembling a brain, Grosberg said.
The research was published in the journal Animal Behavior.
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