Mysterious “Living Goo” Found on Lake Erie Ship—Scientists Baffled by Unknown DNA
A maintenance check on the Blue Heron revealed something astonishing: a living substance we never knew existed. What could be lurking beneath the surface?
A previously unknown living substance was just found on a research vessel in Lake Erie. The substance now known as ShipGoo001 is straight out of a Marvel Movie or a '90s horror flick.
On June 27th, a research vessel called the Blue Heron docked for routine maintenance when a mysterious, gooey, black substance was found oozing from the ship's rudder shaft.
Initially, nobody gave this substance much thought. But they are a research vessel after all, so they decided to run tests. They were shocked at what they found, according to lead researcher Cody Sheik of the University of Minnesota,
The biggest surprise was that the ship goo had life in it at all. We thought we'd find nothing. But surprisingly, we found DNA, and it wasn’t too destroyed, nor was the biomass too low.
Not only did the team find life. They found DNA sequencing that they couldn't match with anything in the global database.
READ MORE: Walmart Recalls Ozark Trail Water Bottles In Michigan
I can't be the only one who feels like this is a Marvel movie, black liquid pathogen situation. Did Venom move from San Francisco, California, to the Great Lakes?
Right now, there are far more questions than answers about this new and previously unknown microorganism. Scientists are excited and hard at work analyzing the goo according to the University of Minnesota.
Beyond satisfying scientific curiosity, the discovery could have practical applications. Some organisms in the “ship goo” appear to be methane producers, potentially useful for biofuel production. The next steps involve studying what these microbes actually do in their environment and understanding their metabolic processes.
The Lake Erie Hot Hole
Strange Creatures of the Great Lakes
Gallery Credit: Wikipedia
More From WKFR
