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My understanding is that if hydra is cut into pieces, each piece can evolve into a new hydra. What I'm looking for is whether there exists an organism with a this property reversed, that is, if two or more such organisms meet, they would form new organism with the same property.

UPDATE: I do not mean the mythical creature, but this one. I should also have stated that I'm (obviously) not a biologist, so my terminology and information about the Hydra genus might be wrong. Despite that, I hope the question is still valid.

Peter Jankuliak
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  • Not that it really matters, but the hydra myth involves its heads, specifically. Cut one off, and it would grow two (or three or more, depending on the myth) from where the first used to be. The whole creature wouldn't duplicate. – Nerrolken Sep 02 '15 at 16:28
  • @Nerrolken, sorry, should have been more clear. Updated my question. – Peter Jankuliak Sep 02 '15 at 17:45
  • Perhaps sea sponges might satisfy your criteria? There were some classic experiments where two distinct sponge colonies were dissociated individually into small clusters of cells, and then the two suspensions were mixed. As I recall like sorted with like. – mdperry Sep 03 '15 at 00:00
  • Siphonophora (these are close relative of hydra). They are considered to be a colony of zooids. I am not sure if that is what you are asking. You an also think of Dictyostelium. They can aggregate to form fruiting bodies. – WYSIWYG Sep 03 '15 at 05:13
  • Possible duplicate of http://biology.stackexchange.com/q/37473/3340 – WYSIWYG Sep 03 '15 at 05:24

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