- Every year on May 16, people celebrate these fascinating aquatic creatures on INTERNATIONAL SEA-MONKEYS® DAY.
- Sea-Monkeys® are BORN WITH A SINGLE EYE. As they mature, two additional eyes develop, and the middle eye disappears.
- Baby Sea-Monkeys® are ATTRACTED TO LIGHT, while adults tend to avoid it.
- They SWIM UPSIDE DOWN in a PERPETUAL BACKSTROKE.
- Sea-Monkeys® have 11 LEGS and BREATHE THROUGH THEIR FEET.
- They can reproduce in five different ways.
- Their eggs (cysts) can remain in SUSPENDED ANIMATION for years, waiting for the right conditions to hatch.
- Sea-Monkeys® belong to the genus Artemia, which diverged from a common ancestor in the Mediterranean around 5.5 MILLION YEARS AGO.
- Their lineage has remained largely unchanged for approximately 100 MILLION YEARS!
- They inhabit about 500 BODIES OF WATER WORLDWIDE, including natural salt lakes and man-made salterns, where seawater evaporates to produce salt.
- In Utah’s GREAT SALT LAKE, they play a crucial role by eating algae and keeping the water cleaner.
- Despite their small size, they are the largest animals in the Great Salt Lake, growing just over 0.4 inches (1 cm) long.
- They are an ESSENTIAL FOOD SOURCE for migratory birds and support a multi-million-dollar fishing industry in Utah.
- Ironically, Sea-Monkeys® are not MONKEYS, do not live in the SEA, and aren’t technically SHRIMP—they are crustaceans.
- FLAMINGOS get their PINK COLOR from eating brine shrimp! Brine shrimp consume algae rich in carotenoid pigments, which gives them a pinkish-orange hue. When flamingos eat the shrimp, the pigment transfers to their feathers.
FACTS ABOUT CRUSTACEANS:
- Crustaceans are dominant marine ARTHROPODS and play an essential role in aquatic food webs.
- They are INVERTEBRATES with jointed limbs and EXOSKELETONS, belonging to the phylum Arthropoda and the subphylum Crustacea.
- There are over 50,000 KNOWN SPECIES of crustaceans worldwide.
- Some crustaceans are EXTREMOPHILES, meaning they thrive in extreme environments like hot springs, ice caps, and hydrothermal vents. These habitats endure intense temperatures, pressure, radiation, salinity, or pH levels.
- The SMALLEST CRUSTACEAN, Stygotantulus stocki, measures less than 0.1 millimeters, making it invisible to the naked eye.
- Tiny crustaceans are IMPORTANT SCAVENGERS, recycling waste and debris back into the food chain.
- The LARGEST CRUSTACEAN relative of the Sea-Monkey® is the JAPANESE SPIDER CRAB, which can grow up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) across.
- Some crustaceans, like the Japanese spider crab, can live up to 100 YEARS, making them among the OLDEST ANIMALS ON EARTH.
