Prehistoric Mold Found in Denver Sewer

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Last Edited: Tuesday, 08 Jan 2008, 7:43 PM MST

Created: Tuesday, 08 Jan 2008, 7:42 PM MST

Image of the underground bio-slime. December 2007. SideBar

http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?

contentId=5429876 & version=2 & locale=EN-US & layoutCode=TSTY & pageId=3.2.1

By JOHN ROMERO, Reporter

DENVER - An underground mystery is over for the Crestview water

system. In December, a robotic camera checking sewer lines for damage

stuMbled upon a green, slimy organism with tentacles that seemed to

be alive.

" It looked like it was hiding from the light, " water system worker

Randy Ferguson said. And the tentacles seemed to be staying away from

the water.

The discovery was made in a pipe near the intersection of 76th and

Pecos.

Ferguson and his partner Mike asked the Colorado Division of

Wildlife to look into the creature, because in 20 years of sewer

work, they had never seen anything like it before.

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.

Bryozoans aren't harmful, although they can occasionally clog water

pipes.

For now, the Crestview water system isn't going to do anything about

the animal in it's pipes.