UKH

At low tide the other day there were these little brown jelly like things all over the beach. They were around 1cm (or maybe even less) across. 

Any idea what they are?

Sea gooseberry? 

I don't think so. The pictures I'm finding of sea gooseberries are transparent, but there have a brown center

What do they taste like? 

Rejects pile from the local contact lens factory?

Ah, thanks for the insight!

Baby jellyfish?

That was what I wondered, but I haven't found pictures of any that look like that yet. Also, a bit alarming quite how many jellyfish we will have this summer if it is!! Eeck, I hope not!

A kind of flat worm? Not seen them before but look like the picture in Collins coastal wildlife guide. Have seen other worms, like rag, come out from hiding at this time of year.

They are ripple marks created by the currents moving in and out of the shore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_marks

These look like asymmetrical ripple marks. They are often found fossilised.

CB.

I know about the ripple marks, that's not what I am looking at. If you look closely there are little brown dots all over. These were some sort of jelly like substance. I have never seen them before, and we are down on that particular bit of beach / mud flats all the time.

Similar blobs of jelly sometimes get washed up on my local beach. I've yet to find out what they are. The problem with marine invertebrates that get washed up on the shore is that once out of the water they often look different to how the animal would look when supported by water.

One of my theories is that they are the medusa stage of some sort of hydroid. Hydroids are jellyfish like animals which mostly have very short tentacles which could easily be hidden when the animal is collapsed on the beach. The medusa is the sexually reproductive stage of their life cycle. Most hydroids appear to be whitish or transparent but some such as Neoturris pileata have pinky brown insides. It's just a theory and is most likely wrong.

Alternatively the colouration could be an optical effect of the light refracted through the jelly. Did you pick one up and hold it up to the light? I must try this next time I find some.

I thought similar - somehow making the sand underneath the jelly blob look likes it’s contained within the blob. 

Here’s a ‘zoomed in one’.  

I had another look at them today. The brown is definitely part of the blob, and it had a long, clear jelly "tail". Didn't sting at all. 

I did a Google image search yesterday and found these blobby jelly things which had a tail, and they are similarly coloured to yours - type of sea cucumber - but in California. Will do more googling…..

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2303186/mystery-as-thousands-of-bizarre-super...

Interesting! The ones on our beach had much longer tails, and smaller bodies. I guess ours could be younger though and still developing?

The fact that they have been in the same place the last couple of times I have been there, suggests something a bit established. They have survived a good few tide cycles. I will watch with interest over the next few weeks to see if they grow or develop somehow