Eggs? by Ron Lutz II


02-SEP-2004	Ron Lutz II

We found these under water. They were also on the branches of submerged trees. Anyone know what they may be the eggs of? Are they eggs?

\,Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
1/750s f/6.7 at 280.0mm iso400, +1.4x Extender full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto

Ron Lutz II		28-Sep-2005 13:26
I recieved this email from our science department after taking some specimens in. "Ron: The globs were big colonies of moss-animals or moss-animalcules. These are strange beasts in the Phylum Ectoprocta (formerly called Bryozoa). Thousands of the little tentacled lophophores form colonies as huge gelatinous globs and when mature die and release statoblasts (the little hooked circles we looked at under the microscope). They like very clean water which is warmish....dying off when the water temperature drops....but there are other species in the ocean that form colonies under floating ice! This is a common species of freshwater ectoprocts and the largest, Pectinatella magnifica (Leidy) in the family Plumatellidae. There are several more freshwater species, but never with colonies larger than a marble. Google this for lots of confusion and information....but a good older site ishttp://www.millermicro.com/bryozoa.html We preserved gobs of statoblasts, and are trying to preserve the colonies (but this is apparently not easy or nearly impossible as they are almost entirely water in structure. We would be interested in seeing your images of these....strange beasts and it is all coming back to me....years ago I went through this same effort to recognize this species with Jack McCoy....way back in 1987! Thanks, John Rawlins Bugs "

Ron Lutz II		27-Sep-2005 18:16
Actually, your post is very timely. Jessica and I went to the lake this past Sunday and collected some more of these. We brought them into the museum where I work for the scientists to look at. Just this morning I watched as one said, “what the heck is that?” and then a second said, “what the heck is that?” They then handed to one of the curators who said, “What the hell is that!?!” Under a microscope the little black dots have a donut shape ring with little fish hook like projections coming out of it. They are now looking into just what it might be. It's ALWAYS fun to stump the scientists... LOL

Guest		27-Sep-2005 16:28
The spawn of the Loch Ness Monster. Put it back.

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