Nature & Environment

Rain brings alien-like shrimp back to life

By T.K. Randall
January 16, 2017

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) The shield shrimp, a 'living fossil' that has remained mostly unchanged for millions of years, is one of the hardiest animals on the planet. It spends most of its time buried beneath the desert sand and its eggs are so tough that they can survive without any water at all for up to ten years.

Recently however, an unexpected period of extremely wet weather has brought millions of these elusive crustaceans to the surface, leading to sightings all over the outback.
"When sufficient summer rain comes along, they hatch and go crazy trying to feed as much as they can on micro-organisms and bacteria in the water," said Michael Barritt, an expert on living fossils.

"They want to be able to lay their eggs back into the drying surface before the waterhole dries out."

Source: IB Times

Tags: Shrimp, Australia