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desert wiggle-womper
in the desert of southern Utah i like to take the kidz out for a hike every now and then. there is a place on top of a messa where there is a lot of petrified wood and indian arrowhead and just really neat things to find and discover. Well any how. there is a place on top of some sandstone clifs where water will gather in various pockets that create a shallow pond of water. there are only 2 places that i have found that the water will stay in for more thain two or so weeks. this little pool right now is dry, so i gathered a jar of dirt and brought it home to put in a bucket of water. 2 dyas later boom!!! these cool little bugs hatched out and about doubled in size every day. the one on my hand is approx. 2 weeks old.
I can give you more ifo on just what i have observed, but cand put my finger on what to call them. i figure they can obviously live in dry sand for many years.
Phil Dunn
Southern Utah

Tadpole Shrimp: Dorsal View

Hi Phil,
We are very excited to get your letter and wonderful photos. Your creatures are Crustaceans known as Triops or Tadpole Shrimp. Triops are a very ancient life form that have developed a unique survival strategy. They often live in areas where there is limited or sporadic rainfall. Much like your home experiment, when water fills a dried up pond with the seasonal rains, the dormant eggs hatch and quickly develop to maturity. Adult Triops then mate and lay eggs that will eventually dry up awaiting the next rain. We have found a Triops Information Page on the internet that indicates the species Triops longicaudatus is found in the Western U.S., Central and South America. Encyclopedia Britannica Online mentions a species Triops cancriformis, but sadly, we have not paid for our Encyclopedia online access so we cannot read the information. We do have our ancient hard copy of Encyclopedia Britannica dating from 1956 that includes some information on the genus Triops under the subject heading of Branchiopoda, a subclass of the Crustaceans that includes other primitive forms like Fairy Shrimp, Clam Shrimp and Water Fleas. Tadpole Shrimp are in the order Notostraca and are characterized by the “broad, shield-shaped carapace covering the fore part of the body.” We feel compelled at this point to bring up the controversial “E” word. We personally believe that due to the nature of the life cycle of the Triops, isolated populations do not share gene pools, potentially giving rise to different species and subspecies that have Evolved independantly of one another from distant shared ancestors. In the interest of opposing view points, it is also possible that individual populations of Triops were Created about 7000 years ago.

Tadpole Shrimp: Ventral View

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