The Portuguese Man O' War Includes Four Distinct Species, New Research Reveals

Not one, but four – revealing the hidden species diversity of bluebottles

Long believed to be a single, globally distributed species drifting freely across the open ocean, the bluebottle – also known as the Portuguese man o’ war – has now been revealed to be a group of at least four distinct species, each with its own unique morphology, genetics, and distribution.

The Portuguese man o' war includes four distinct species, new research reveals

Long believed to be a single, globally distributed species drifting freely across the open ocean, the bluebottle—also known as the Portuguese man o' war—has now been revealed to be a group of at least four distinct species, each with its own unique morphology, genetics, and distribution.

Portuguese Man O' War Found To Be Four Species Not One After 250 Years

Thanks to citizen science, the researchers were able to compare over 4,000 images.

Not one, but four – revealing the hidden species diversity of bluebott

Not one, but four – revealing the hidden species diversity of bluebottles Long believed to be a single, globally distributed species drifting freely across the open ocean, the bluebottle – also known as the Portuguese man o’ war – has now been revealed to be a group of at least four distinc