Hundreds of three-eyed 'dinosaur shrimp' emerge after Arizona monsoon
Hundreds of three-eyed 'dinosaur shrimp' emerge after Arizona monsoon
By Laura Geggel 5 days ago
Following a torrential summer downpour in northern Arizona, hundreds of bizarre, prehistoric-looking critters emerged from tiny eggs and began swimming around a temporary lake on the desert landscape, according to officials at Wupatki National Monument.
These tadpole-size creatures, called Triops "look like little mini-horseshoe crabs with three eyes," Lauren Carter, lead interpretation ranger at Wupatki National Monument, told Live Science. Their eggs can lie dormant for decades in the desert until enough rainfall falls to create lakes that provide real estate and time for the hatchlings to mature and lay eggs for the next generation, according to Central Michigan University.
Triops' appearances are so uncommon, that when tourists reported seeing them at a temporary, rain-filled lake within the monument's ceremonial ball court — a circular walled structure 105 feet (32 meters) across — the monument's staff weren't sure what to make of the critters.
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Three-eyed crustacean
Triops — which is Greek for "three eyes" — are sometimes called "dinosaur shrimp" because of their long evolutionary history; the ancestors of these crustaceans evolved during the Devonian period (419 million to 359 million years ago), and their appearance has changed very little since then, according to Central Michigan University. (Of note, the dinosaurs didn't emerge until much later, during the Triassic period, which began about 252 million years ago.)
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[link:https://www.livescience.com/dinosaur-shrimp-emerge-arizona|
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They are obviously far wiser than the Republican plutocrat-propagandists who make war on the natural world, and upon American democracy.
