UKC

Hi,

Can anyone tell me what these were?

http://www.ootnaboot.scot/scrapbook/20141129Blobs.jpg

They were on a small ledge about 3m up a sea cliff in NW Scotland, well above the high tide level. They looked biological to me.

They were a few mm across and free-rolling rather than rooted in the sand; there were a few larger ones nearby (up to about 1cm) which were more flattened, almost dish-like.

The variation in sizes made me think they were not eggs, but I can't be sure.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

In reply to skog:
I'm no expert on what I think they might be as I'm a zoologist at heart.

I'm thinking they look like a fungus' fruiting body at a glance.

Eggs are very likely to be pretty much the same size so I'd almost rule the out.

Did you give them a gentle prod? Slimey, firm, soft?

There must be a mycologist checking your post soon, see what they say.

In reply to skog:

Bladders of Bladder Wrack seaweed?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucus_vesiculosus

In reply to Ron Walker:

Could be egg wrack

In reply to skog:

lichen?

In reply to wiwwim:

Thats not a wrack.. I'd guess some sort of egg from an invert but not sure what.. They look similar to cuttlefish eggs, possibly washed up but they tend to be darker due to the ink..

In reply to skog:

Hmm. I don't think they were washed up - they were clustered on a small ledge just below the green wellies here:

http://www.ootnaboot.scot/scrapbook/20141129Achmelvich.jpg

with a few on a lower ledge to the left and a couple of larger, flatter ones a few cm higher up on the right. Only storm waves would ever reach there.

I pushed a couple around with a piece of grass. They weren't sticky, didn't deform with that kind of pressure, and had no root or obvious underside.

I couldn't see any more of them, or any obvious source of them, higher up; I couldn't find any on ledges under there or on the sand below.

A slightly larger image:

http://www.ootnaboot.scot/scrapbook/20141129Blobs2.jpg

In reply to skog:

I think they are shark eggs/yoke sacs. I guess an otter ate a pregnant dogfish up there.

In reply to Wicamoi:

Maybe, but there was nothing else there, just these.

A few interesting answers, thanks. I'm still not sure!

In reply to Wicamoi:

Unlikely (too differrent in size, no hooks or filaments). Looks like seaweed / wrack fragments to me, but then I am not a marine biologist.

CB

In reply to cb294:

Would bits of wrack not show some sign of the rest of the stems, or marks where they were broken off? These were discrete blobs.

In reply to skog and cg294:

I don't think it is surprising that there would be nothing left but the eggs if the ovary of the fish was not very palatable to the initial predator, and if the eggs were difficult to penetrate by subsequent, smaller scavengers. Nor should the different sizes argue against them being eggs, as they could be examples of different stages of egg development within the ovary.

I am not a shark expert by the way.

In reply to Wicamoi:

Mermaid's purses are dogfish eggs and look nothing like that

In reply to skog:
how about worm egg cocoons washed up by high tide?
eg the green leaf worm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eulalia_viridis

In reply to skog:




so why not storm waves?

In reply to skog:

Absolutely no help but I've lived along the NE coast most of my life and have never seen anything like it before. However, I know someone who will know - If I can find their contact details..

In reply to skog:

Closest I can find is paddle worm eggs, but they're still not really right.

The widely differing sizes mean they're unlike most fish eggs. Not sure if they're eggs at all, to be honest, never seen these before.

In reply to skog:

Try the ispot identification service.

In reply to JJL:


You're right about the eggs that the dogfish actually lays, but I'm suggesting that what skog found was eggs at an earlier stage of development, before the egg case (=mermaid's purse) was secreted. I'm suggesting that the eggs were exposed only because the fish itself was predated. If you google image 'shark eggs' you'll find various gruesome examples of dissections showing what I'm talking about.

In reply to skog:

most likely a Slime Mould but you really need a fungi expert to confirm this
B

In reply to malk:


They could have been washed up in a big storm, but waves that big seem likely to disperse small objects like these, not concentrate them.

In reply to Brownie:

I would have said the fruiting bodies of a slime mould too ... but I've just Googled some pix and I can't find anything that matches.

In reply to skog:

Valonia, Bit far north, but maybe came up on the gulf stream I suppose

In reply to skog:

+1 ispot

http://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland

In reply to wbo:

Wow, never heard of that one before, knowledge on this site is amazing

In reply to wbo:

Brilliant, that looks like it could be it.

Thanks. And I second Brownie's "knowledge on this site is amazing" comment.

Thanks also for the pointers to ispot, it seems interesting.