# Those tiny jelly blobs on the beach

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-tiny-jelly-blobs-on-the-beach/837779>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 29, 2019, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-tiny-jelly-blobs-on-the-beach/837779 "2019-07-29T01:26:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rayks\_Marcial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@Rayks\_Marcial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayks_Marcial)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-tiny-jelly-blobs-on-the-beach/837779/1 "2019-07-29T01:26:17Z")

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Google shows a lot of examples of them. Some are clearly some species of jellyfish, having some kind of radial symmetry. But some just look like gelatinous fragments; pebble-sized, and very clear (as clear as eye drops.) A lot of them even have a bubble inclusion in the center. So if they’re not jellyfish what are they?

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-tiny-jelly-blobs-on-the-beach/837779/2 "2019-07-29T02:45:24Z")

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Well, googling _jelly blobs on the beach_ to try to see what you are talking about had [this](https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/strange-goo-balls-are-washing-us-beaches/) as the first hit, so that accounts for some of them.

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**Author:** ![Rayks\_Marcial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@Rayks\_Marcial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayks_Marcial)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-tiny-jelly-blobs-on-the-beach/837779/3 "2019-07-29T03:14:04Z")

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Salps, the first I’ve read about them, even their sub-phylum tunicata. So a vertebrate animal can be plankton-sized, and it could feel like a nip of clear jelly.

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-tiny-jelly-blobs-on-the-beach/837779/4 "2019-07-29T09:27:40Z")

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> [@Rayks\_Marcial](#):
>
> Salps, the first I’ve read about them, even their sub-phylum tunicata. So a vertebrate animal can be plankton-sized, and it could feel like a nip of clear jelly.

Tunicates are chordates, but they are _not_ vertebrates.