Posted on 06/04/2007 1:58:26 PM PDT by BGHater
What's making the mini crop circles? Snails? Millipedes?
A mysterious circular pattern on moss-covered logs has scientists scratching their heads.
Last winter, researchers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park discovered the symmetrical bull's-eye pattern on patches of liverwort (a close relative of moss) growing on pine trees that had died and fallen on the ground.
At this point, biologists aren't sure what causes the circles. Some have suggested snails, while others have speculated millipedes.
"Immediately, we thought of snails," said Keith Langdon, chief biologist with the Smokies. "But snails graze in a zigzag pattern. We can't find records of anything like this in the park. It appears to be a rare phenomenon."
Etched into the velvet-green surface of the liverwort, the patterns have appeared like tiny crop circles. The only reports of anything similar come from the arctic regions of Greenland and Canada, where a moss-eating fungus is believed to be the cause.
So far, there are no known reports of the circular patterns occurring this far south or on liverwort.
Chuck Parker is an aquatic biologist for the U.S Geological Survey who spotted the circular patterns a few weeks ago on a cliff face in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.
"Finding them outside the Smokies, and on a substrate other than pine trees, is a variation on the theme," Parker said. "There's a real fascination here. I'd love to figure it out."
Rebecca Shiftlett is a nature photographer and art teacher who was with the group that discovered the circles in the Smokies last winter. They were surveying an area for the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) when they noticed some unusual impressions on liverwort-covered logs beside the trail.
"When you've been in the woods as long as we have, you look for things you've not seen," Shiftlett said. "These concentric circles jumped out at us. We sat there for the longest time trying to figure out what in the world would do that."
Since 2002, the ATBI has sent an army of researchers and volunteers into the Smokies to collect and catalogue every living life form.
So far, the ATBI has identified approximately 4,666 species that are new records for the park and 651 species new to science.
Shiftlett said the bull's-eye patterns are a perfect example of the mysteries that are revealed when enough people start looking around.
"Nature tends to produce shapes that are organic and free form," she said. "This clearly is a geometric pattern, which, in the natural world, you hardly ever see."
Morgan Simmons may be reached at 865-342-6321.
Hmmmm - someone has their ear to the gounnd at the 18th.
That looks like a fungus was growing there and fell off.
“What’s making the mini crop circles? Snails? Millipedes?”
Democrats.
Bigfoot’s fingerprint.
I don’t think that I’d want to hang out in a forest that has gigantic fingerprints on the trees. After all, that whole “Trolls don’t like sunlight” thing could be nothing more than a myth.
log tattoo... likely killed a log from some other gang
They call that circular? and somebody calls them scientists?
Don't look at me. I didn't do it.
I’d say you’re right on.Definately on of those large flat fungi that grow on trees.....
on=one
Looks like a wood grain pattern surrounding a knothole. Maybe the pine pitch kills the moss in patches.
Fascinating. I wonder if moss can grow fairy rings like mushrooms.
Good pic of Ahmanutjob - didn’t know he golfed either.
For a nature photographer and art teacher, she's blind. Nature is full of geometric patterns.
Mostly he caddies for Kramer.
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