Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: dunbar on 06/02/2009 01:23:44
-
Hello, first post here. Sorry that it won't be as profound as others.
A couple of years ago I was walking outside the property surrounding my home. I was about 3 feet near a creek, just outside where the ground would be soft and muddy and noticed a very peculiar object. It was difficult to see at first, but when I squatted down and got my face rather close, I could discern that it was a clear jelly-like material in a perfect spiral/coil. The best description I could give would be if someone squeezed a tube of KY Jelly in the shape of a coil and left it there on the rock. I thought nothing of it really for some time, leaving the cause of the object to be some egg casing from a possible amphibian or perhaps a jelly mold.
A few months went by and the weather dried up a bit. Upon coming home from the grocery store, I noticed ANOTHER one on my driveway. It was on the concrete, near an ornamental rock, and not noticeably close to a source of moisture. Once again, it appeared as though a culprit had squeezed a tube of KY Jelly in the shape of perfect spiral. I searched the internet for it and found nothing. I asked friends and neighbors to no avail. Nobody knew what it was.
Again, months go by. My phone rings. My brother had been picking his children up from daycare and was listening to an AM radio station (national, I do believe) with a guest professor (not sure where from) answering questions from callers. Lo and behold, I shitteth thee not, a caller started asking him about a large number of gelatinous coils that have sprung up all over his front yard and porch. He claimed they showed up virtually overnight and there were a great number of them. My brother conveying to me what he heard established, in my mind, that the two instances were absolutely related. To my amazement, the professor had no idea what he was talking about and had never seen phenomena that matched that description. The clincher was when the caller then stated where he was from...and it happened to be exactly 14.9 miles from my doorstep to his. He was calling from the same county. I was shocked...
I still have not found any information about this phenomena. I have searched as long as I can, and can search no more. I must ask for help, and I am hoping someone can quench my thirst for knowledge.
Thank you for your time,
-db
-
Sounds almost like snail or slug eggs etc.. sometimes they can be found in gelatinous coils or spirals.. perhaps you can check out spiral pictures on net.. I am having difficulty finding a photo for you.. keep getting just articles..
Someone else may have a picture here...Hang tight!
Welcome to the forum...
It might help to know what part of the country state region etc you are in.. do you have the large snails there where you are?
-
Dunbar - hello, and welcome to the forum!
To help other members identify your KY jelly "creature", it would help if you provided as much background information as possible. You give a nice outline of the "thing" but not where you are in the world (though it sounds like the States), your proximity to geographical features and so on. These details, which may sound trivial or obvious to you, may be the information that is required to identify the "thing", especially to a third party who is trying to "picture" it from your description.
Please do let us know!
-
It might help to know what part of the country state region etc you are in.. do you have the large snails there where you are?
Thank you for your time!
I am in Oregon in a city called Silverton. [size=08pt]( I removed the Canibus link ...Please try again with the corect link)[/size] It will give you a good idea of the geography.
The snails here aren't any larger than most parts of the west coast, I've lived up down this place my whole life and there aren't any real big snails...but I just realized that my perspective is relative. How 'big' are you talking?
I have seen pictures of the nudibranch and its egg casings and they seem to match the relative idea but I remember tighter coils that weren't so FUBAR'd...and the texture throws me off too. These (http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/shs_41.jpg) only resemble what I saw in essence, not an identical match by any means.
-
Thanks this will help some for those more knowledgeable then myself!
I will look some more tomorrow..
Your second link worked great but the first one was not a wiki link.. I removed it and you should feel free to find the proper link and reinsert the new wiki link!
I assume the other was an accident... LOL..
-
Your second link worked great but the first one was not a wiki link.. I removed it and you should feel free to find the proper link and reinsert the new wiki link!
I assume the other was an accident... LOL..
I assume the other was an accident... LOL..
LOL, classic. Yeah, the other was an accident.
I was having kind of a rough day and this really gave me a good chuckle.
Strangely enough, or not, I have no recollection of how this happened.
-
Slime mould can form spirals: it's a reaction-diffusion pattern (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction-diffusion#Two-component_reaction.E2.80.93diffusion_equations).
Curvature and spiral geometry in aggregation patterns of Dictyostelium discoideum [slime mould]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The actual size of this photo is 2mm across, i.e. [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
http://dev.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/109/1/11.pdf
Mechanism of aggregation in Dictyostelium...Because the internal cAMP concentration inactivates the receptor for external cAMP, an individual cell shows oscillatory behaviour. This behaviour produces beautiful spirals seen in converging colonies and is reminiscent of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction and cyclic cellular automata.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictyostelid
Living creatures are not necessary to create Belousov-Zhabotinsky (B-Z) reaction spirals, they occur in simple chemical reactions ...
[ Invalid Attachment ]
http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/chaos/pic_gal.html