Mysterious jellyfish-blob-thing...

Just read this in a local norwegian newspaper...

- It was 50-70 cam in diameter and looked like a big bathing ball. It was transparent, but had a thick read thread in the middle. It look a like something from a science-fiction movie, says Svensen.
www.bt.no... (Norwegian)

Picture taken south of Rosendal, at the end of the fjord Matrefjorden. Probably just an unknow spieces of jellyfish, although none og the scientists can tell if it's even a plant or an animal or what. Kind of made me think of that series Invasion, as if it's some kind of alien egg





Oh and sorry for posting it in the Aliens & UFO section. Couldn't find any better place...

Hello.
Thanks for the find it is an interesting little thing. I always considered jelly-fish to be some of the weirdest creatures on Earth so it really wouldn't surprise me if this one was in the family.

On a side note, I think the cryptozoology forum might be more appropriate for this type of thread.

Awesome species! Very interesting..

Always loved jellyfish! ^_^


[edit on 26/10/06 by Thain Esh Kelch]

Very interesting. One thing that it looks to be lacking is tentacles. Jellyfish also have radial symmetry. In the pictures it shows that it seems to have three nodes protruding from it.(two on the top and one on the bottom). I'm not sure if it is a jellyfish, but if it is it might be in the category of box jellyfish.

Defiantly not an alien.

Originally posted by testrat
Very interesting. One thing that it looks to be lacking is tentacles. Jellyfish also have radial symmetry. In the pictures it shows that it seems to have three nodes protruding from it.(two on the top and one on the bottom). I'm not sure if it is a jellyfish, but if it is it might be in the category of box jellyfish.

Defiantly not an alien.

Interesting that you noted about the nodes, because the original article also says it had three protrusions (spelling?) and when they squeezed it it bounced right back out. Pretty sure it's not an alien yes, although I'm a bit surprised that no one has "defended" the alien theory yet. Seems to be a lot of people here that jump on any bit of news they can find to claim alien connections. Guess this means there are more objective people here who look rationally at stuff like this.

Anyway, mods please feel free to move this thread

Could it be a deformed version of the giant jellyfish? The colors look about the same.

www.extremescience.com...

fascinating find DrLeary

jellyfish are extremely freaky and wierd creatures. Even the little one look like aliens to me. This one is a spectacular example of nature's madness.

I certainly wouldn't want to cross path with one of those if swimming or diving.

If it were a deformed giant jelly then it woldn't likely get this big. Without the tendrils it wouldn't know how to move. Maybe it's jsut a species we don't know about yet, after all, how deep is the ocean?

Drleary, thanks for bringing this to our attention and translating portions of the article !

My question:

Did they take the specimen to be examined? If not, why?

Originally posted by Griff
Could it be a deformed version of the giant jellyfish? The colors look about the same.

www.extremescience.com...

It doesnt look anything alike it...

What i suddenly came to think of, was algae.. It has a remaracble resemblance to some spheric mutli-cellular algea. But the size, and the string in the middle..

In my opinion it's not an adult jellyfish of any kind. The problem with the jellyfish suggestion is that jellyfish are passive "drifters" so they don't really need limbs to move around (although it helps to keep the upside up, and the bottom side at the bottom )... They do however need their tentacles to feed. (They feed on plankton that gets caught in their tentacles.) This blob has no (visible) way of feeding much less a clear digestive track. (But then again the picture is not clear enough to see any such details.)

The closest jellyfish it resembles (IMO) is the comb jellyfish
Beroe Ovata (Comb Jellyfish)...

Which leads me to believe that if this is not part of some animal, then it's an egg off some kind.

1. It could be a jellyfish in its early stages, but if this is the egg or even a jellyfish in Polyp or Planula stages, then this is going to be one badass giant jellyfish!

JellyFish life cycle example
Jellyfish Life Cycle

2. Or it may be a fish egg of some kind. But then again, if that's the case... I do NOT want to see what the mommy fish looks like!!!

And that's exactly it. The fact that thing is so big! (I take it "50-70 cam in diameter" means centimetres? ) I hope they kept it and/or studied it...?
A true mystery indeed...

Edit: broken link

[edit on 27-10-2006 by Gemwolf]

According to biologist Torleiv Brattegard at the university in Bergen , the jellyball could be the egg sac of an Akkar (Todarodes sagittatus).

Akkar

Originally posted by HelenSanders
According to biologist Torleiv Brattegard at the university in Bergen , the jellyball could be the egg sac of an Akkar (Todarodes sagittatus).

Akkar

That's believable, with the only problem that flying squids (akkar) grow to the length of 1 meter (the "egg" is 0.3 - 0.5 meters)...

And I don't see the resemblance to typical squid eggs:
Examples

But then again, Torleiv Brattegard is a biologist, and I'm not...

Do you perhaps have a link to where Torleiv Brattegard makes this statement, HelenSanders?

UiB

He got a tip from a colleague at Stavanger Museum, who had seen a photograph of a similar organism taken in New Zealand.

And after the article reached the news, reports of sightings came in from Vest-Agder in the south to Trøndelag in the North.

[edit on 27/10/06 by HelenSanders]

Originally posted by Griff
My question:

Did they take the specimen to be examined? If not, why?

Apparently they did not. It was discovered by two divers and I guess they didn't have anything to take samples with or more likeley the thought never crossed their mind.

Didn't say what depth it was found on either, or what kind of diving equipment they were using. Did some googling but couldn't find the depth of Matrefjorden either. Guessing we're talking less than 40m as this is - to my understanding - a common limit with standard scuba gear.

The Akkar-egg theory sounded good, but after looking at other squid eggs I really don't see any resemblance. So I guess this one is still a mystery.

At the end of the UiB article is says:

We are now going to get a sample from one of these balls and do a molecular-biological comparison with samples of other squids in the akkar family which could be laying their eggs in an area (for instance west of Ireland and Scotland) where warm water from the atlantic ocean could carry them to the coast of Norway, says Brattegard to På Høyden.
nyheter.uib.no...

[edit on 27-10-2006 by DrLeary]

It was discovered at about 5 meters depth.

Source