
A bryozoan, a brownish green mass of individual organisms, was found in a Vancouver park, which came as a huge surprise so far west of its usual habitat.
Something extremely weird was just spotted for the first time in a park in Vancouver, British Columbia thanks to low water levels. It’s called a bryozoan, and this weird, gelatinous blob resembling a brain was found in Stanley Park’s “Lost Lagoon,” a small body of water found at the southern end of the park.
It looks like a brownish green mass that jiggles as soon as it is pulled from the water, and one person described it to National Geographic as being like Jell-o. But in fact, it is a real, living creature, made up of hundreds of individual creatures living as a colony. These single organisms, called zooids, are just a fraction of a millimeter in length that reproduce asexually.
Scientists believe bryozoans have been around for 470 million years. This particular one found in Stanley Park is a Pectinatella magnifica, or magnificent bryozoan. It’s quite an important find because they aren’t typically found west of the Mississippi River, let alone near the Pacific Coast.
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