Hydrozoan (Noun)
Meaning
Colonial coelenterates having the polyp phase dominant.
Classification
Nouns denoting animals.
Examples
- The Obelia species is an example of a hydrozoan where the polyp stage is the dominant form of its life cycle.
- Hydrozoans like Millepora and Distichopora exhibit complex colony structures in their polyp stages.
- Some species of hydrozoans can form free-swimming medusae that are bud-like or sac-like, such as those in the family Cladocroceridae.
- Portuguese men-of-war is an example of a hydrozoan siphonophore with both a dominant polyp and a free-swimming medusa phase.
- In certain species of hydrozoans like Eudendrium and Hydra, the medusae either bud from the sides of the polyp or they may even degenerate altogether.