Tadpole and fairy shrimp

[topum]

I spent half of my day today crawling on my knees around some vernal pools in the forest admiring tadpole and fairy shrimp and other crazy things that live there. And then the other half of my day reading about these little aliens. Great day.

This is a picture of a tadpole shrimp



And this is a fairy shrimp



The pictures are from the internet.

Comments

[beautesauvage13.livejournal.com]

Faery Shrimp?  What is a faery shrimp? 

I don't think I've ever seen a faery shrimp.  Tadpoles I used to catch those and take them home as pets. They eventually grew legs and escaped.  Used to catch frogs too and minnows. 

Sounds like a fun day though. 

Athena

[topum.livejournal.com]

I have just added pictures of both fairy shrimp and tadpole shrimp (not a tadpole) to the post. Check them out. Amazing creatures with a very interesting lifecycle.

[beautesauvage13.livejournal.com]

Cool little creatures.  The tadpole shrimp looks like it has a smilie face on it's head. 

I'm going to have to Google these. 

Athena

[topum.livejournal.com]

I think you want regret spending a couple of minutes reading about them. They are among the oldest surviving creatures in the world with an interesting lifecycle.

[found-world.livejournal.com]

Examining the pools sounds like a fun thing to do. The tadpole shrimp reminds me of a trilobite.

[topum.livejournal.com]

It does indeed. Here they live even in tire track depressions filled with rain water. They are among the oldest surviving creatures in the world I think with a very interesting lifecycle.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Tadpole shrimp! Brilliant! How big are they, it suddenly comes to me to ask. I've only seen them in photos.

That sounds like an excellent day.

[topum.livejournal.com]

I am doing it again today, I just cannot stop. Vernal pools is all want to do in the next couple of days. They will be drying up soon till next early spring. They are teeming with life. Most of it looks almost alien. And these guys apparently are among the very oldest surviving living things on earth.

The little guys here are from half an inch to about three inches.

They are almost extinct in UK I think and are super protected. I heard there are only two vernal pools in the whole of UK which still have them. Here they are in every car tyre depression filled with rain water.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I used to know someone who kept them as pets, but I never saw them personally - they apparently can be grown fairly easily if you have sand in which they lay their eggs. Looks like the widely-sold species is the US one though.

Fascinating things, I didn't realise they got so big!