Rain brings life, especially in arid environments. Like this one creature, they wait for the right moment to appear. Three-eyed animal once appeared in the late July 2021 rainy season in northern Arizona, United States.
The discovery occurred in an ancient ceremonial field of Indian tribes at Wupatki National Monument, near Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. The field was filled with water after days of rain in Wupatki. The Wupatki National Monument Facebook page once shared the moment on July 26, 2021 as a rare and historic event.
"One can clearly see that this field could have been used as a water reservoir 900 years ago. Wildlife still comes and drinks from here," wrote Lauren Carter, Lead Interpretation Ranger Wupatki National Monument, quoted from Live Science.
When the water can stay in the pond long enough, the tadpoles start arriving. Carter thinks this makes sense, as toads can emerge from their burrows to lay eggs when they become aware of the conditions conducive to raising young.
But the reports from the guards of the national monument kept coming, so Carter decided to check it himself. As it turned out, what he found was far more interesting. Not only tadpoles that are there, there are also other very strange creatures.
"We keep getting reports that there are tadpoles in the ancient field pond. I also checked directly there, scooped up the creatures with my hands without any expectations. Then I saw a strange animal, what is it? I don't know," he said.
The creature in his hand looks like a fossil, is pink in color, shaped like a horseshoe crab or an Indonesian horseshoe crab, and has three eyes. Carter soon realized that they were triops, also known as 'tadpole shrimp' or 'dinosaur shrimp'. Triops means 'three eyes' in Greek.
The findings were posted on the Wupatki National Monument Facebook page. In his post, it was stated that the creature was technically not a tadpole or a shrimp, but a crustacean.
Triops is a genus of small crustaceans in the order Notostraca. They live in spring ponds in Africa, Australia, Asia, South America, Europe, and parts of North America. They are sometimes called living fossils because their outward appearance has not changed much since the Triassic period.
Crustaceans can live in such fusing conditions because they have very special adaptations that allow their eggs to survive in dry places for long periods of time. These tiny horseshoe crabs appear to be lying around waiting until the puddle of water is long enough for the eggs to hatch.
Then, they grow to maturity in just a week, reproduce, and lay more eggs to repeat the cycle. They also provide food for birds such as nighthawks that live around monuments.
"Triops is just another example of how even under the toughest conditions, life finds its own way to survive," Carter said.
In a comment below the post, Wupatki National Monument also explains that crustaceans are on average two to three inches long and their eggs remain dry for up to 27 years before hatching.
They also said that although the field had been filled with water for the past four years, they had never seen triops before. The guards of the monument area do not know how much longer they will have to wait for the next rainy season to be able to see these amazing creatures again.