Portuguese Man-of-War are in the phylym Cnidaria along with jellyfish, hydra, sea anemones, and corals. They are well known to swimmers because of the painful stings they inflict. They are an important part of the marine food web globally and have fascinated scientists for more than 300 years. Although looking like a strange jellyfish, they are actually more closely related to hydra and sea anemones (Class Hydrozoa) and are classified in the order Siphonophora. I am currently working on two separate projects that focus on the natural history and phylogenomics of Physalia.

Project 1) The Physalia Team: Principal collaborators Samuel Church (NYU) and Casey Dunn (Yale University)

Church, Samuel H., R.B. Abedon#, N. Ahuja, C.J. Anthony, D. Destanović, D.A. Ramirez#, L.M. Rojas, A.E. Albinsson, I. Álvarez Trasobares, R.E. Bergemann, O. Bogdanovic, D.R. Burdick, T.J. Cunha, A.Damian-Serrano, G. D’Elía, K.B. Dion, T.K. Doyle, J.M. Conçalves, A.G. Rajal, S.H.D. Haddock, R.L. Helm, D. Le Gouvello, Z.R. Lewis, B.I.M.M. Magalhães, M.J. Mańko, C.G. Mayorga-Adame, A. de Mendoza, C.C. Moura, C. Munro, R. Nel, K. Oguchi, J.N. Perelman, L. Prieto, K.A. Pitt, M. Roughan, A. Schaeffer, A.L. Schmidt, J. Sellanes, N.G. Wilson, G. Yamamoto, E.A. Lazo-Wasem, Chris Simon, Mary Beth Decker, J.M. Coughlan, and Casey W. Dunn. 2025. Population genomics of a sailing siphonophore reveal genetic structure in the open ocean. Current Biology 35: 1-14.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.066

Project 2) A multi-year census of Physalia strandings on Kailua Beach, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands. Collaborators: John Stimson (U. Hawaii) and Stephen Chiswell (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington, NZ). In progress.