ST. LOUIS — There are some odd shapes that appear on Google Earth if you zoom over I-44 near Eureka, Missouri. Radio station KHMO from Hannibal, Missouri is part of the Townsquare Media group. They are asking readers if they “Have seen these ‘Crop Circles’ next to I-44 in Missouri?”

Well, they are not exactly the work of aliens. FOX 2 reported on the shapes in 2014. They are a part of Washington University’s Tyson Research Center. It is a 2,000 acre outdoor laboratory for ecosystem studies.

Researchers are fostering some of Missouri’s native species in the glades. They include plants and animals that you may not think of as coming from the Show-Me State. These Missouri glades, funded by the National Science Foundation, are areas of exposed bedrock, containing cacti, tarantulas and even scorpions.

The circles and stars from an overhead view might seem like something of an alien nature, are really natives of Missouri. Tiffany Knight, PhD an Associate Professor of Biology with Washington University tells FOX 2 that, “These are species that if we lost them in this region they would be lost to the globe because they are found here and nowhere else.”