Bizarre Three-Eyed ‘Shrimp' Emerge in Arizona Following Monsoon

With all the bizarre events of the past year and a half, it's starting to seem like truly anything is possible. Some shrimp are inching us even closer to a "Jurassic Park" world of resurrected Wooly Mammoths and dinosaurs. Recent monsoons in Arizona revealed a shocking number of the micro-wonder and it's something you'll want to see for yourself. It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a Crustacean-Dinosaur-Shrimp? Now, the scientific name behind the three-eyed shrimp species is officially Triops and it's not hard to understand why. Tri- is the Greek prefix for "three" of something. Then -ops is the Greek suffix for terminology surrounding the "eyes" and "vision." Mash 'em together and voila! Three-eyed shrimp. Arizona officials that watch over the Wupatki National Monument region found the ancient-looking crustaceans as they hatched from their eggs post-summer rains. Actually, it turns out that these little guys can stay dormant in their eggs for decades in dry conditions. That tidbit of knowledge comes directly from a University in Michigan. A lead interpretation ranger from the Wupatki area, Lauren Carter describes them as "little mini-horseshoe crabs with three eyes." She also discusses how their finding came about accidentally. "We knew that there was water in the ball court, but we weren't expecting anything living in it. Then a visitor came up and said, ‘Hey, you have tadpoles down in your ballcourt.'" Upon closer inspection, they were identified as "dinosaur shrimp." (Outsider)