June 18, 200620 yr ''Yet another beastie finds its way into my possession on a day off. Today I used my insect net to rip this mass of aquatic jelly off a concrete wall of New York's Barge Canal. It's now in the freezer because it started to stink after I brought it home. I once brought a smaller sample of this to a NYSDEC biologist and he told me it was from the phylum Bryozoa.'' +WTF is That stuff+
June 18, 200620 yr Bryozoans are very small aquatic creatures, usually only about a few millimeters in size, but they are almost always found in large colonies. The freshwater ones typically grow in large jelly-like cololnies that can get large enough to clog water intakes. Marine varieties gather on ship hulls, dock pilings, and just about anything else. The marine varieties are also partially responsible for the limestone bedrock throughout South Florida, having formed in large colonies (similar to coral) when the area was the bed of a warm shallow sea as recently as 10,000 years ago. Thier fossilized remains are what form the majority of limestone here (even though most people think it is coral. the best way to tell...you can find fossils of coral within the bryozoan limestone.) The substance bryostatin is from a common marine variety, and is currently being tested for anti-cancer properties.
June 19, 200620 yr Looks like crap. Literally I swear I thought the same thing. What a load of crap that is???!!
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