It’s not every day that someone stumbles upon what looks like a glowing dinosaur egg chilling in a river, but that’s exactly what volunteers in the Netherlands found this month—just in time for spooky season.
Ecologists were baffled to find the glowing, slimy orange sack, which could easily be mistaken for a sci-fi creature’s egg, at the bottom of a floating island in Utrecht, Holland.
Highlights
- Volunteers in the Netherlands discovered an orange colony of bryozoans.
- Bryozoans are aquatic invertebrates forming jelly-like blob structures.
- These "blobs" are commonly found in the U.S. but are rarely found in the Netherlands.
- “It is the first time that they have been discovered here. So it is a very special story,” ecologist Anne Nijs said.
Earlier this year, a similar discovery was made in Oklahoma, sparking wild conspiracies of “alien egg pods.”
The unique find, made this month in Utrecht, turned out to be a colony 0f bryozoans—tiny aquatic invertebrates that cluster together to form jelly-like, often large, blob-like structures.
Volunteers in the Netherlands found a colony of bryozoans, which are slimy little organisms that cluster together to create a large pod
Image credits: stadsecoloog.utrecht
“This was hanging on the bottom of a floating island. These are animals that form a colony together: water bag bryozoans,” ecologist Anne Nijs told AD.
“In America they are also called “the blob,’” she added.
Anne explained that the “blob” is a colony of multiple animals, and these colonies can grow to have a diameter of almost seven feet.
“The big bag is formed by several animals together. At a certain point they form a colony and different colonies can then stick together again. A bag can become 2 meters in diameter. That bag then attaches itself to something,” she said.
“But fortunately they do not harm the environment here,” she added.
While these are commonly found in the U.S., it is a rare sight in the Netherlands, making the recent discovery a rare one.
“It is the first time that they have been discovered here. So it is a very special story,” she told the outlet.
A similar such "blob" was found in Oklahoma earlier this year, sparking conspiracy theories of "alien egg pods"
Image credits: Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC)
“Since 1990 the species has appeared all over Western Europe and is spreading rapidly,” she added.
Earlier this year, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation shared pictures of bryozoans found in the McGee Creek Reservoir.
The conservation department warned boaters about seeing these “strange jelly-like balls hanging from submerged tree limbs” during the summer.
“These microorganisms are native and are of no danger to you or wildlife. In fact, they are an indicator of good environmental quality and clear water!” the department said on social media.
"These microorganisms are native and are of no danger to you or wildlife," the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation said
Image credits: Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC)
“Individuals called ‘zooids’ continually clone themselves until they create a large mass where they filter tiny particles out of the water for food,” the message continued.
"What makes them look and feel like jelly? Well, that is a soft shell made of a substance called chitin that can harden when dried up to preserve the organism until rehydrated,” the department added.
They also noted that these organisms are important to the ecosystem.
“They help clean the water and serve as prey for mussels, snails, and even small fish,” the department said. “They often spread through water connectivity or even by passing through the intestinal tract of fish or birds!”