Residents of Oklahoma found a mysterious hard sac-like ‘egg’ hanging from the tree roots at the lake, but scientists are now calming the locals, who immediately jumped to conclusions of alien proportions, by explaining that it’s an ancient creature
These creatures have found the right space and environment, so its likely they’ll be around a lot this summer.
Locals in Oklahoma discovered large, jelly-like sacs with a hard exterior hanging from tree roots; they immediately thought the answer was extraterrestrial. Or at least not good news.
But scientists, reassuring the public, have said that the locals in the area got a rare treat – the glimpse of the reproductive system of an ancient animal that’s been around since before the dinosaurs.
Immediately, locals put it up online, and spectators began commenting on the extraterrestrial-looking eggs. But scientists say that the creatures were simple bryozoans. They’ve been around for hundreds of millions of years, before the first dinosaurs roamed the planet. The animals may actually be good news for the lake.
These bizarre creatures are actually hundreds of tiny bryozoans.
Officials reassured the public that the animals are absolutely supposed to be there
Bryozoans clone themselves into large masses to filter tiny particles out of the water for food, cleaning up the lake. The critters normally reside in ponds and lakes. This time, it was found in McGee Creek Reservoir, located on the southwest edge of the Ouachita Mountain Range.
Bryozoan clumps aren’t an egg or just one animal at all. They form this hard shell as they are hundreds of creatures banded together. The pods, known as zooids, are each a fraction of a millimeter long. They lack any respiratory or circulatory systems, but their central nerve ganglion allows the animal to respond to stimuli.
These pods are hanging from tree roots, and actually help clean the lake
The tiny invertebrates possess both male and female reproductive organs, allowing them to self-clone and spread through clumps of cells on the organism known as statoblasts.
Each statoblast can reproduce asexually. They do this by breaking off from a colony, allowing the animal to reproduce rapidly if the space and the weather are suitable. The animals eat phytoplankton and bacteria lurking in water.
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Fossil records suggest they may have evolved from an ancient marine worm. Their grandparents, ancient bryozoans, date back as far as 470 million years. For perspective, dinosaurs came around 245 million years ago.
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) shared the photos on social media. “What is that??? If you’re out boating somewhere like McGee Creek Reservoir you may notice these strange jelly-like balls hanging from submerged tree limbs,” begins the post.
“These are Bryozoans, and they’ll likely show up in large numbers this summer. Don’t be alarmed 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!”
Woman Says Man’s Aggressive Outburst At Gym Is Proof ‘Women Aren’t Safe In 2024’
“I work at a gym and have never seen anyone do what you were doing,” one writes.
“Looks nothing like pulse squats,” another agrees.
Other commenters are angry at Ruvee for filming herself in a public place.
“Ban video recording in gyms!!” one demands.
“Cameras should be banned, and she should 100 per cent be banned forever,” another shares.
While a third writes: “It’s the facial expressions. Pulse squats is one thing but adding facial expressions to make it look like something else is where she went wrong.”
In the video, a man approaches Ruvee while asking: “What are you doing?”
She explains it’s a leg warm-up, and he replies: “I know what you’re doing.”
The man then accuses Ruvee of being ‘what’s wrong with girls’, at which point the woman asks him: “Are you pointing at me?”
He goes on to describe her behaviour as ‘ridiculous’ before kicking her phone away, seemingly breaking the screen.
Later on, Ruvee speculates that the man knew who she was and that he was angry because of her OFs fame.
“I can’t believe I’m not allowed to stretch at the gym because of what I do for work,” she shares on Instagram.
“Before I started OFs I was doing the same stretch before every leg day,” she says in a follow-up TikTok video.
“And all the people saying that I deserve to have my phone kicked, I deserve to be harassed in public because I was minding my business in the smallest corner of the gym… is there a rule that says no phones? No there’s not. Was it on a tripod? Was I being obnoxious? No, I wasn’t. Was I being loud? No.
“So it’s really sad to me to see all these comments saying that I deserve something because I went to the gym and was stretching.”
There has since been some speculation on X, formerly known as Twitter, about whether or not the video was a staged skit.
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