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Phylogeny
Kingdom - Animalia
Phylum - Arthropoda
Subphylum - Crustacea
Class - Branchiopoda
Order - Notostraca
Family- Triopsidae
Genus- Triops and Lepidurus
About The Class
This taxa consists of fairy shrimp (bottom), water fleas, clam shrimp (middle), and of course- triops. The oldest fossil of this group is from the Devonian, 365MYA. They are defined by their gills on their appendages and sometimes mouthparts. The name Branchiopoda roughly translates to "gill-foot".
Order
Some Notostraca posess evidence of the double antennae crustaceans posess, but some have lost them completely. Their antennae are very short or not present at all. They have a hard Carapace which gives them their tadpole appearance.
The Pool Pros!
These little creatures are masters of dormancy. They commonly live in areas where the water dries up for the season, then their eggs have to wait for rehydration when the time comes.
They can stay dormant for months to decades. They appeared "out of nowhere" in Arizona this last July of 2021. Wupatki national monument only gets 9in of rain annually, but a rare monsoon created a pool- then they popped up only days later.
Because of this trait, they make easy pets. Hatch at will!
Feeding and Breeding
Our Order of interest- Notostraca- has roughly 11 species.... with much debate over it. This is because of their many modes of reproduction and morphological plasticity. They are capable of sexual reproduction, hermaphrodite selfing, and even parthenogenesis.
THEY. WILL. EAT. ANYTHING. Triops are omnivorous and can be pests in rice fields, but are also possible biocontrol agents of mosquito larvae. They eat living things, dead things, algae and plants. They eat constantly throughout their 90-day adult lifecycle.
Works Cited
Brendonck L., Rogers D.C., Olesen J., Weeks S., Hoeh W.R. (2007) Global diversity of large branchiopods (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) in freshwater. In: Balian E.V., Lévêque C., Segers H., Martens K. (eds) Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment. Developments in Hydrobiology, vol 198. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8259-7_18
Graham Bell (1982). The masterpiece of nature: the evolution and genetics of sexuality. Croom Helm applied biology series. Cambridge University Press. p. 243. ISBN 978-0-85664-753-6.
Lagebro, Linda; Gueriau, Pierre; Hegna, Thomas A.; Rabet, Nicolas; Butler, Aodhán D.; Budd, Graham E. (May 2015). Korn, Dieter (ed.). "The oldest notostracan (Upper Devonian Strud locality, Belgium)". Palaeontology. 58 (3): 497–509. doi:10.1111/pala.12155. ISSN 0031-0239.
Laura Geggel (05 October 2021) Hundreds of three-eyed 'dinosaur shrimp' emerge after Arizona monsoon. In: Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/dinosaur-shrimp-emerge-arizona
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