5 Easter Eggs Hiding In The Natural World

5Japan’s Star Sand

Earth harbors life, or the signs of life, everywhere. Even the most inanimate things, like giant slabs of stone, are made by (or of) life. That includes the limestone of the pyramids or the upper Grand Canyon, made from the crushed-together skeletons and shells of sea creatures millions of years ago. Similarly, their skeletons can also form a type of sand found only in east Asia.

Like on Taketomi-jima, a teeny-tiny, not-quite-two-mile-wide island with a population in the low hundreds. It’s covered with lovely greenery, the quaint type of architecture you’d expect from Japan’s idyll isles, and sand from the planet Vorwyrn.

Alain Couette

Sorry, we spilled some Pepperidge Farm crackers in front of the camera. 

The Hoshizuna-no-Hama and a couple of other beaches on nearby islands are covered with tiny stars. Like limestone, it’s a sign of previous life: the pointed, star-shaped exoskeletons of tiny sea-critters. 

NEON ja/Wiki Commons

So, it’s not creepy actually. They’re just the bones of the dead.

Known as Baculogypsina sphaerulata, these incredibly rare lifeforms are part of the foraminifera grouping of protozoan protists. Translated into English, that means they’re single-celled, shelled, microscopic organisms that, like amoebas, are neither animal, plant, nor fungus.  

5 Easter Eggs Hiding In The Natural World
Source: Pinoy Daily News