The head ranger at Wupatki National Park, Lauren Carter, said these tadpole-sized animals were called Triops. It looks like a tiny mini horseshoe crab with three eyes.
The appearance of the Triops is extremely rare, but they are seen in the temporary rain-filled lake inside the monument’s ceremonial soccer field.
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“There were monument visitors who reported seeing strange velvet in a flooded field,” he told Live Science, Wednesday (6/10/2021).
Carter then took the velvet and found out that it was Triops . Carter previously worked in the Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona, and recalled the Triops report there.
Triops is a Greek word meaning three eyes. These creatures are called “dinosaur shrimp” because of their long evolutionary history.
These crustacean ancestors evolved during the Devonian period (419 million to 359 million years ago), and their appearance hasn’t changed much since then, according to Central Michigan University.
Central Michigan University reports that there are two genera in the family Triopsidae – Triops and Lepidurus – which together include up to 12 species. The creature found at the Wupatki soccer field could be Triops longicaudatus, a species found in short-lived freshwater ponds.
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