Dear Marie,

I don't think these objects are of anthropogenic origin. These rather seem biogenic to me. From what you describe, I'd suspect, e.g., some kind of eggs or larvae? Have you conducted chemical analyses of their make-up? And at which locality precisely were they found - deep inside a fjord, near the shoreline or out at sea?

Best,

Julius

Julius Riese

Dear Julius,

thank you for your answer! We didn´t conduct any chemical analysis (yet).

They were found in a sediment core from the inner fjord, approximatley 800 m away from the shoreline. The deepest sample we took could be up to 900 years old and they also appear in recent sediment layers.

Their abundancy seems to depend on oxygen levels.

That´s all I know so far.

Best,

Marie

Dear Marie,

many thanks, that's very interesting. If abundance of speciemen depends on oxygen levels, this definitely seems to point at organic/biogenic origins. As I said, the "honey-like" substance which you describe from the inner core could potentially represent forms of embryonic stages, eggs, larvae or the like. However, it would be somehow surprising if these structures indeed remain as intact as they seem at such depths and ages. Anyway, did you perform a reverse image search on the internet? This sometimes yields quick and surprising results of similar specimen from around the world and often helps with identification/classification...

I see from your caption that the samples were retrived at Repparfjord. I've been further to the southwest from there a couple of years back and quite enjoy thinking back to these beautiful landscapes :-)

The best of luck & keep us posted (will be interesting to see what this actually turns out to be...),

Julius

Thank you very much for your help!

It seems more and more likely, that the structures acutally might be eggs.

Reverse image search did not produce any helpful output unfortunatley.

It´s indeed a beautiful area, yes! - I will keep you updated in case I find out more!