Natural Science Forum / Earth Science / Oceanography / January 2004

Hi, I'm new to this newsgroup and apologise in advance if this might be
considered off topic.

Several months ago, whilst on holiday my wife and I visited a beach in Wales
and found an interesting 'creature' which we could not identify.

I say 'creature' but it could easily be a plant of some sort.

I took several photographs of this thing but as yet, have been unable to
find anyone who can identify it.

I have perused the Internet but as I do not know if it is a plant or a
creature, I find it difficult to make progress.

Could someone please advise me as to how to identify this? Are there any
newsgroups that might assist me?

Obviously, I can post the pictures and will happily do so if anyone thinks
they might be able to identify the subject, but I guess that this NG is not
the place to do that.

The 'thing' is about 12cms in diameter and has a central 'pod' which is
white in colour and has 6 or seven 'pouches' (which are almost transparent)
radiating outwards from the centre pod. Inside each pouch it was possible to
see several small, dark coloured tentacles protruding downwards, moving
backwards and forwards.

This thing was stranded on the beach, having been left high and dry when the
tide had gone out but I placed it in a rock pool and it was easy to see that
this revitalised it. I kept hoping that I would eventually see the contents
fully but despite watching it for about 2 hours, it had not matured by the
time the tide came back in.

Could someone please advise me as to how to identify this?

Many thanks