It’s giving sci-fi nightmare.
Just in time for spooky season, a bizarre, slimy orange bag said to resemble a glowing dinosaur egg has been pulled from a river.
And while scientists say they know what it is — a colony of Bryozoans, slimy little hermaphrodites that cluster together to create a dinosaur-egg like pod — they’re puzzled as to why the creepy crew was literally hanging out in a canal in Utrecht, Holland.
The phenomenon does not normally occur in The Netherlands, local ecologist Anne Nijs told AD.
“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,” says Nijs.
Volunteers found the grotesque blob clinging to to a floating island in the canal. Experts say that colonies can grow to up to nearly seven feet in diameter.
“It is the first time that they have been discovered here. So it is a very special story,” Nijs said.
The expert added that the aesthetically unsettling phenomena is in no way harmful.
Reportedly originally hailing from the East Coast of the United States, the microscopic weirdos were found as early as 1883 in Germany.
Last spring, a cluster was spotted in Oklahoma — leading to far-flung “alien egg pods” conspiracy theories, The Sun reported.
“Since 1990 the species has appeared all over Western Europe and is spreading rapidly,” Nijs explained.
Bryozoans are zooids with both female and male sex organs, which allows them to clone themselves.
There are nearly 6,000 recorded species of the obscure beings — ideally not hanging around in the next place you go swimming.
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