Bizarre "alien egg capsules" or something that existed before the first dinosaurs walked the Earth?
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Strange "creatures" in an Oklahoma lake have sparked heated discussions
Images of the bizarre sightings surfaced online, showing large, jelly-like balls with a hard exterior hanging from submerged tree limbs. While photos of the strange animals have sparked confusion, and a little fear online, with some people saying they have to be from outer space.
However, there is an "earthly" explanation for all this
The officials reassured the public that the animals were simply bryozoans, which have been around for hundreds of millions of years - long before the first dinosaurs walked the Earth.
They are actually cleaning the lake!
The creatures clone themselves into large masses to filter tiny particles out of the water for food - ultimately cleaning up the lake. Bryozoan clumps are actually hundreds of creatures, known as zooids, each a fraction of a millimeter long, living together in a slimy mass.
They have both male and female reproductive organs
They lack any respiratory or circulatory systems, but have a central nerve ganglion that allows the animal to respond to stimuli. The tiny invertebrates possess both male and female reproductive organs, allowing them to self-clone and spread spread through clumps of cells on the organism known as statoblasts.
They have been on Earth for 470 million years!
Fossil records show that ancient bryozoans date back as far as 470 million years, suggesting they may have evolved from an ancient marine worm.
