Jump to content
Join the Unexplained Mysteries community today! It's free and setting up an account only takes a moment.
- Sign In or Create Account -

Ancient species of shrimp discovered


Saru

Recommended Posts

A rare shrimp that may be the most ancient animal species on Earth is alive and well in Scotland, scientists have discovered.Two colonies of the tadpole shrimp, Triops cancriformis, were found at Caerlaverock on the Solway Coast of Dumfriesshire.

arrow3.gifRead more...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
  • Replies 13
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Druidus-Logos

    4

  • Paracelse

    1

  • Mandrake

    1

  • village_idiot

    1

Top Posters In This Topic

I love these guys. Almost as much as I love water bears. :D

Water bears are awesomeness incarnate.

That's one weird looking shrimp. Break out the garlic and butter :w00t:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Water bears are awesomeness incarnate.

That's one weird looking shrimp. Break out the garlic and butter :w00t:

I once had a species of triops as a pet. As they grow up, the bigger ones eat all the ones smaller than themselves, it's kind of neat. The big and healthy ones live quite a long time, in good conditions.

And, about the water bears, I can only agree.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Water bears are awesomeness incarnate.

That's one weird looking shrimp. Break out the garlic and butter :w00t:

I prefer cocktail sauce.. ketchup fresh lemon juice and horseradish.. lots of horseradish

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The shrimps are adapted to living in temporary water pools. When the water dries up, the adults die but leave behind eggs that can remain dormant for years until wet conditions return.

That's way cool...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i wonder if they are tasty? haha, great news though... makes me think that just maybe EARTH isnt as bad off as everyone thinks to have a species last that long...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's way cool...

Water bears are so much cooler:

"Tardigrades are polyextremophiles and are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. Some can survive temperatures of -273°C (-460 °F) , close to absolute zero,[5] temperatures as high as 151 °C (303 °F), 1,000 times more radiation than other animals,[6] and almost a decade without water.[7] In September 2007, tardigrades were taken into low Earth orbit on the FOTON-M3 mission and for 10 days were exposed to the vacuum of space. After they were returned to Earth, it was discovered that many of them survived and laid eggs that hatched normally, making these the only animals known to be able to survive the vacuum of space.[8]

...

Tardigrades are one of the few groups of species that are capable of reversibly suspending their metabolism and going into a state of cryptobiosis. Several species regularly survive in a dehydrated state for nearly ten years. Depending on the environment they may enter this state via anhydrobiosis, cryobiosis, osmobiosis or anoxybiosis. While in this state their metabolism lowers to less than 0.01% of normal and their water content can drop to 1% of normal. Their ability to remain desiccated for such a long period is largely dependent on the high levels of the non-reducing sugar trehalose, which protects their membranes. In this cryptobiotic state the tardigrade is known as a tun.

Tardigrades have been known to withstand the following extremes while in this state:

Temperature – tardigrades can survive being heated for a few minutes to 151 °C (424 K),[citation needed] or being chilled for days at -200 °C (73 K),[citation needed] or for a few minutes at -272 °C (~1 degree above absolute zero).[8]

Pressure – they can withstand the extremely low pressure of a vacuum and also very high pressures, more than 1,200 times atmospheric pressure. It has recently been demonstrated that tardigrades can survive the vacuum of open space and solar radiation combined for at least 10 days.[8] Recent research has revealed that they can also withstand pressure of 6,000 atmospheres, which is nearly six times the pressure of water in the deepest ocean trench.[9]

Dehydration – tardigrades have been shown to survive nearly 10 years in a dry state.[16]

Radiation – tardigrades can withstand median lethal doses of 5,000 Gy (gamma-rays) and 6,200 Gy (heavy ions) in hydrated animals (5 to 10 Gy could be fatal to a human).[17] The only explanation thus far for this ability is that their lowered water state provides fewer reactants for the ionizing radiation.[citation needed] In September 2007, a space launch (Foton-M3) showed that tardigrades can survive the extreme environment of outer space for 10 days. After being rehydrated back on Earth, over 68% of the subjects protected from high-energy UV radiation survived and many of these produced viable embryos, and a handful survived full exposure to solar radiation.[8]

Environmental toxins – tardigrades can undergo chemobiosis—a cryptobiotic response to high levels of environmental toxins. However, these laboratory results have yet to be verified.

"

-Wikipedia

I read about one specimen that had been on some dehydrated moss in a museum exhibit for ~240 years. Apparently, it came right back to life after exposure to water.

This guys are survivors!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

These things are common. (plus 200 million years is a exageration, the old reported figure was 70 million).

It was these creatures that the original 'predator' from the movies was based on (the mandibles) etc, i read something with the original concept artist stating that he 'had a dream about a humanoid creature with Mandibles, much like the tadpole shrimp'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I prefer cocktail sauce.. ketchup fresh lemon juice and horseradish.. lots of horseradish

it doesn't look like there much meat

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

it doesn't look like there much meat

Yeah, it looks like most of their body mass is exoskeleton, and being as small as they are, they aren't really worth extracting the meat from.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.