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Mystery Seashore organism (1 Viewer)

Jane Turner

Well-known member
Sorry for the iffy phone pic, but does anyone have a clue what this might be.

I was thinking some type of sponge - but it has no obvious opening and is incredibly dense. Like solid rubber. Texture like cooked chicken. Weird thing.

On a beach in N.Wales y'day. One of at least two washed up. I don't even know if its animal or vegetable!
 

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Jane Turner said:
Sorry for the iffy phone pic, but does anyone have a clue what this might be.

I was thinking some type of sponge - but it has no obvious opening and is incredibly dense. Like solid rubber. Texture like cooked chicken. Weird thing.

On a beach in N.Wales y'day. One of at least two washed up. I don't even know if its animal or vegetable!
Interesting but not something that I recognize. Sorry.
:stuck:
 
MSA said:
Could it be a seed pod of some tropical tree?

Don't things like that get washed up on Cornish beaches every now and again having come across the Atlantic ?

wouldn't take much course alteration to end up in Wales, and with recent hurricanes etc ...
 
It looks like one of them "living stones" cactus thingies to me. Maybe someone had one in a pot on their yacht and a wave washed it overboard. I'd say it was a vegetable but probably not edible. I wouldn't want to try it.

Gus
 
I'm with you Gus, certainly looks like a living stone, lithops I think they are called.

Gus Horsley said:
It looks like one of them "living stones" cactus thingies to me. Maybe someone had one in a pot on their yacht and a wave washed it overboard. I'd say it was a vegetable but probably not edible. I wouldn't want to try it.

Gus
 
There were two of them - the other one with more spherical growths - it looked like it had more growing space. Do living stones feel like cooked chicken?
 
Jane, just been to the lithops web site, starting to reconsider my original guess. Long time since I have seen a lithops, my late mother grew them. According to the site they are almost always formed with 2 leaves only, looking like a couple of pebbles.
See www.lithop.supanet.com


Jane Turner said:
There were two of them - the other one with more spherical growths - it looked like it had more growing space. Do living stones feel like cooked chicken?
 
I thought it was a fungi or a sponge until I picked it up and found out how heavy it was. Actually I thought it was going to be expansion foam!
 
:bounce: Perhaps its the latest from Kentucky Fried Chicken TV dinner range - don't fancy the chips though.

Keep us posted - it'll be interesting to know for sure.

Deborah
 
This is definitely not a Lithops! They are normally 2-leafed, 4-leafed when new growth comes through,and the leaves stand in pairs of 2 (new leaves turned by an angle of 90° in relation to the old ones).

Seing the thumbnail I was thinking of a dead sand urchin washed ashore (having lost most stings) but the description and the big photo totally contradict this...

no idea...any more photos?

Some sea snails produce strange egg masses; also I was thinking of Ascidians or tunicates, or perhaps a Cirripedian (some these tropical barnacle relatives)...but nuffing really fits...
 
First thought it was a sea potato, but larger pic showed that not to be the case - can something synthetic be ruled out? I've not seen anythign organic like this before.
James
 
Is it a Tumour?

Jane

I'm probably way way off here, but just thinking laterally, could it be some sort of parasite of a larger sea mammal, I'm thinking skin lesions or even tumours (sorry bout spelling, am on the graveyard shift at work!) - I know it sounds awful, but if the host has died from other causes, it would make sense for the parasite to fall off and die too - it would maybe explain the 'sucker' bit - in case it is some kind of sea mammalian cancer that caused the death, it would be helpful to get it biopsied by a vet(seriously) which needn't harm the 'creature' if its still 'alive' and could provide valuable information for marine biologists/environmentalists - but what do I know! Just a very very wild guess!

Deborah
 
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