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Very, very weird sewer creatures caught on camera – tubifex worms or bryozoan?
by Marshall Brain | June 30, 2009
Near my home in Raleigh, NC, these bizarre creatures were caught on camera:
It looks freaky, but it is described here as “a colony of tubifex worms”:
Raleigh ’sewer creature’ surprises city officials
Ed Buchan, environmental coordinator at the Raleigh Public Utilities Department, said staff biologists have confirmed that the “creature” is actually a colony of tubifex worms. The colonies attach themselves to roots that gradually work themselves into weak points in the pipes.
“They seem to respond to the light from the camera,” Buchan said. “That light is pretty hot.”
The worms naturally occur in sewage and pond sediment and are actually sold both live and dried as fish food in pet stores.
This video shows how tubifex worms naturally clump together when separated:
There was something very similar in Denver. It is described here as a Bryozoan:
Prehistoric Sewer Monster Caught on Video
An aquatic specialist from the DOW confirmed that what the camera had discovered was actually a Bryozoan, a primitive life form that, as a species, is over 350 million years old.
The Bryozoans are collections of smaller organisms that filter food out of the water supply, and they are an extremely primitive “animal” life form.
Apparently you can find another form of bryozoa in the bayou:
For more info see: Bryozoa
The sewer robot that took this video – what did it look like? Here’s a typical sewer robot:
More info on sewers and septic tanks:
- How Sewer and Septic Systems Work
- Watch as sewer workers descend into the city sewer. Learn more about sewers in this video
What is Cameron Village? It is a shopping center in Raleigh, NC:
Fun fact – Cameron Village was one of the first “planned communities” in the United States and was “the first shopping center constructed between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia. By 1950, Cameron Village, a “town within a town,” comprised 65 stores, 112 business or professional offices, 566 apartment units, and 100 private homes.”
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Bruce says:
Wow, they are cool but freaky.
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[...] Very, very weird sewer creatures caught on camera -or- How Bryozoa Work – The Blogs at HowStuf… [...]
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It’s hard to imagine that second video existing before YouTube.
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Chris Jones says:
^^ or video cameras…
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Erh… your link to ‘Prehistoric Sewer Monster Caught on Video’ is about bryozoa found in sewer pipes in Denver, not the Raleigh, NC from the first clip.
Maybe the Raleigh creatures are also bryozoa, or maybe they’re a hoax. The way you cited the KDVR story is misleading.
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Cheryl says:
In the second video, who are the bryozoa? The two gel-like creatures or the big hairy one who is shooting a gun with young children nearby?
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Zooba says:
I have heard numerous other people say this isn’t a Bryozoa, since Bryozoa move incredibly slowly, but that this is infact a Tubifex Tubifex.
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[...] Very, very weird sewer creatures caught on camera -or- How Bryozoa Work Near my home in Raleigh, NC, these bizarre creatures were caught on camera: [...]
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[...] none of the above. According to the How Stuff Works blog this thing is called Bryoza. It’s a 350-million year old primitive animal life form comprised [...]
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chnceg says:
I know that the DOW said that it’s a Bryozoan or whatever, but honestly, that doesn’t look like any of the pictures/videos I was looking at. That thing in the sewer was so slimy that it looked like it was actually using the slime to climb the wall. Just look at it! It has tons of slimy tubes and there’s some white thing that comes out of the top near the end and then goes back into it. I don’t believe it.
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no says:
well the first video is dead
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boggartblog says:
The first pic looks like a close up of a woman giving birth.
Bryoza are not as weird as the creatures we report from tme to time on Boggart Blog. Like:
Amoeba Contabulae
or
Turd Nine From Outer Space -
[...] Brain over at HowStuffWorks picked this story up in his blog and claims that these mysterious blobs are really just members of a 350-million year old species [...]
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[...] Brain over at HowStuffWorks picked up the Raleigh sewer story in his blog and claims that these mysterious blobs are really just members of a 350-million year old species [...]
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Robert Lamb says:
The sewer creature in the first video or the armed rednecks in the second video — which is the more repulsive organism?
I’m as yet undecided.
~rl
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[...] An aquatic specialist from the DOW confirmed that what the camera had discovered was actually a Bryozoan, a primitive life form that, as a species, is over 350 million years old. The Bryozoans are collections of smaller organisms that filter food out of the water supply, and they are an extremely primitive “animal” life form. Very, very weird sewer creatures caught on camera -or- How Bryozoa Work – The Blogs at HowStuf… [...]
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[...] An aquatic specialist from the DOW confirmed that what the camera had discovered was actually a Bryozoan, a primitive life form that, as a species, is over 350 million years old. The Bryozoans are collections of smaller organisms that filter food out of the water supply, and they are an extremely primitive “animal” life form. Very, very weird sewer creatures caught on camera -or- How Bryozoa Work – The Blogs at HowStuf… [...]
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I shot the second video and the bryozoa.The first video is not bryozoa they only live in fresh completely unpolluted water there are a couple of saltwater varieties.I know for a fact the first video is not bryozoa
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Apparently the local news is also reporting it as Tubifex tubifex, not bryozoa. Can we get Dr. Brain to clear up the matter?
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Eric says:
Sorry, here’s the link:
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[...] a primitive life form that, as a species, is over 350 million years old. Very, very weird sewer creatures caught on camera -or- How Bryozoa Work – The Blogs at HowStuf… __________________ Visit http://www.pistolgear.com for all of your XD needs! function [...]
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[...] the article here at the HowStuffWorks.com blog, BrainStuff: Very, very weird sewer creatures caught on camera – or – How Bryozoa Works. [...]
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Cory says:
I have a picture of the Bayou form.I didn’t know what it was.We actually dissected it and it was jelly like all the way through.I assumed it was some primitive filtering organism and what do you know I was right.Yay brains.http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm163/Dielock/BayouAnomily2.jpg
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rosatula says:
Me impresionó mucho la forma de vida dentro de una cañería? ayyyyy o era dentro de los intestinos humanos? me gustaría saber mas sobre ese video.
Gracias por subirlo. -
AKeeperoftheFlame says:
it’s sad to see a lesser form of life destroying what is probably a more intelligent species…but then, that’s what mankind has been doing for a long time…
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Mr. Common Sense says:
According to Dr. Timothy Wood, freshwater bryozoa expert:
Thanks for the video – I had not see it before. No, these are not bryozoans! They are clumps of annelid worms, almost certainly tubificids (Naididae, probably genus Tubifex). Normally these occur in soil and sediment, especially at the bottom and edges of polluted streams. In the photo they have apparently entered a pipeline somehow, and in the absence of soil they are coiling around each other. The contractions you see are the result of a single worm contracting and then stimulating all the others to do the same almost simultaneously, so it looks like a single big muscle contracting.
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[...] Very, very weird sewer creatures caught on camera Near my home in Raleigh, NC, these bizarre creatures were caught on camera: [...]
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gringogidget says:
This is totally a colonoscopy!
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1stboybandfan says:
They look like a lung or a heart or something. That is messed up.
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[...] Very, very weird sewer creatures caught on camera – tubifex worms or bryozoan? Near my home in Raleigh, NC, these bizarre creatures were caught on camera: [...]
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[...] quick google search uncovered at least one blog site that knows WTF this creature is! theblogathowstuffworks. Personally, I think they are wrong. This is definitely how liberals appear when not in public and [...]
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[...] – Howstuffworks.com [...]
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[...] a few weeks ago, we all followed the North Carolina “sewer monster” and the uncertainties surrounding its origin. Today, I caught up on my news and learned (via the excellent Monster Brains art blog) that [...]
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Bob says:
1)I came for the weird creature and stayed for the redneck video.
2)I bet you that some of that ball bryozoa is still alive
3)it is weird to think that those balls have been around for 20 million years….yikes.
4)Mr.common senses post should be read. -
[...] colonoscopy, and the commentariat developed various theories about the creatures in the video: bryozoans, tubifex worms, or plasmodial slime [...]
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Спасибочки за статью, а это тема
В мемориз однозначно, пригодится! -
Благодарю. Это именно то, что нам нужно было
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