Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
A mysterious orange gelatinous sac filled with live eggs stuck together has been discovered afloat in a canal in the city of Utrecht, Netherlands, local portal AD reports.
The strange, slimy bag turned out to be a colony of bryozoans, small hermaphrodite invertebrate animals that form colonies and that emerged hundreds of millions of years ago, which normally inhabit marine environments, although they can also live in fresh water.
"The large bag is made up of several animals together. At a given time, they form a colony and then several colonies can join together again. A bag can reach two meters in diameter and then that bag sticks to something," explained urban ecologist Anne Nijs.
These colonial invertebrate animals that have stuck together are "exotic" for Utrecht, according to Nijs. "But fortunately they do not harm the environment here," she added.
Bryozoans are considered to have originally come from the eastern United States. They were first found in Europe in 1883, in Germany. "Since 1990, the species has appeared throughout Western Europe and is spreading rapidly," Nijs explained.
The colonies die in autumn and although they do not represent any danger, their remains can give off unpleasant odors. However, these colonial animals are important for the balance of the ecosystems they inhabit, as they filter the water by feeding on bacteria or phytoplankton. (Text and photo: RT)
