USA: Three-eyed “dinosaur shrimp” found after rains in Arizona

Heavy rains usually bring floods, floods and a lot of chaos with them. However, in Arizona, the monsoon rains recorded in the Wupatki National Monument revealed a peculiar finding that has shocked the networks and even the authorities of northern Arizona.

The rains led to the discovery in a pond of some strange three-eyed crustaceans that identified as “Dinosaur shrimp” O “triopsTadpole-sized creatures, considered living fossils, discovered by Lauren Carter, a forest ranger at the Wupatki National Monument.

Carter, as reported by the scientific journal “Live Science”, described these creatures as a class of “little horseshoe crabs with three eyes “ and explained that “Dinosaur shrimp” appeared after an intense downpour recorded in the northern arizona and they remain in a lake formed in the middle of the desert.

The scientific publication reported that the eggs of these dinosaur shrimp tend to remain inactive in the desert. even decades until they receive enough water to mature and emerge into these creatures that look like something out of a science fiction movie.

Although this finding was fortuitous, facilitated by the weather conditions and the rains, it was also short since the life span of the dinosaur shrimp is 90 days, but the pond in the ball court that they were found lasted three or four weeks, he said. Sump.

As weeks passed, local nocturnal birds (crows and hawks) swooped down into the water to devour the creatures, according to government officials. Wupatki National Monument. The unknown is how many triops managed to lay eggs before the lake dried up? It will be known until the next monsoon.

Dinosaur shrimp find

In late July, a monsoon fell over northern Arizona, causing a pond to form on the ball court of the Wupatki National Monument, the ranger said. Lauren Carter a “Live Science”.

“We knew there was water in the ball court, but we did not expect anything to live in it”, said Carter. “Then a visitor came up and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got tadpoles on your playing field.’

Carter wondered if it could be the toads, which live in underground burrows during the dry season, and had emerged in the season rainy to lay eggs, but he was surprised to see the dinosaur shrimp he took in his hand.

“I just picked it up with my hand and looked at it and said ‘What is that?’ I had no idea, “Carter said. But then, he felt a hint of familiarity; Carter had previously worked in the Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona, and recalled reports from triops there. “And then I had to look for it,” he said.

What are dinosaur shrimp?

Based on an article in the Michigan University, cited by the magazine “Live Science”, its name “triops”, comes from the Greek and means three eyes, but they have been named as “dinosaur shrimp” for their ability to evolve.

However, in sum, dinosaur shrimp They are “crustaceans that evolved more than 350 million years ago during the Devonian period” and have had practically no changes in their external morphology.

These creatures are survivorsfor they have not disappeared from the face of the earth for several extinctions geological, which “may be related to the ability to remain in the embryonic stage for several decades.”

It should be noted that there are two genres of this crustacean, belonging to the family Triopsidae: the Triops and Lepidus, which together include up to 12 species, according to Central Michigan University.

Although there is the idea that these “triops”, found in the Monument Wupatki National, could be Triops longicaudatus, a species found in spring ponds, which are short-lived freshwater, scientists have yet to analyze.

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