ZOOIDS
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3806 |
| Object type | General information, Human sciences, Methodology or model |
The small individual organisms that compose colonial ones.
Some examples are the amoebae that constitute the collective form of the slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum ; or the thousands of small animals that compose the Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia).
It is in fact their integration in a functional individual on a higher level of complexity at which they interact in new emerging specific ways which differentiate the zooids from similar elements in a more autonomous condition.
The extensive use of the term has been sometimes criticized. However, each organism is in fact a collectivity, whether of cells , or of more complex individuals, as in a beehive or a swarm of ants…or human societies.
At the living systems level , zooids are similar to particles in atoms, atoms in simple or more complex molecules and organic molecules as living matter components .