According to national park officials in Arizona, hundreds of strange-looking three-eyed shrimp nicknamed “dinosaur shrimp” surfaced after a bout of heavy rainfall over the summer.
The creatures are actually prehistoric crustaceans named triops and were discovered in the Wupatki National Monument area in September.
However, most folks like the name dinosaur shrimp better.
These shrimp have three eyes which have a pinkish color and are about an inch or two long.
Scientists believe the shrimp hatched following a monsoon in late July which caused a small lake to form inside the ceremonial ball court area of the park that’s typically dried up most of the year.
It’s said the creatures lay eggs that can remain dormant for several decades before nature creates enough water for them to hatch.
However, it’s not clear exactly how long these eggs had been in the ground.
Ironically, triops have an extremely short life span, only living 90 days or whenever the water dries before that time.
In the case of these triops, the water dried up in about a week.
Park officials say they have no way of knowing if the triops had time to lay more eggs before dying.
Monument officials first learned of the rare triop hatchings after a few visitors reported seeing what they mistook as tadpoles a muddy pool of water.
At first, officials believed the creatures to be underground toads driven above ground because of the heavy rainfall.
According to researchers working at Central Michigan University, triops are considered living fossils because these creatures haven’t changed much since they first evolved over 350 million years ago.
They usually can be found in seasonal wetlands in Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and a few parts of North America. You can also watch a fascinating video with more information about these ancient creatures below.
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