Photo: Getty Images
Hundreds of super creepy prehistoric-looking "dinosaur shrimp" have emerged in Arizona, YahooI! News reported. A tourist was exploring The wave in Arizona on December 23rd when they came across a pool of water. Inside the water were the tadpole-like shrimps that are living fossils. The crustaceans date all the way back to the Jurassic age and the former supercontinent Gondwana.
The small shrimp are called Triops and "look like little mini-horeshoe crabs with three eyes," according to Lauren Carter, lead interpretation ranger at Wupatki National Monument.
So why are the dinosaur shrimp just now emerging?
According to Central Michigan University, the shrimp eggs can lie dormant for many decades until enough rain comes to create lakes. Once the lakes are formed, the eggs will mature and hatch.
Hundreds of the shrimp were discovered in October of last year as well. "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 ball court,'" Carter said. "I just scooped it up with my hand and looked at it and was like 'What is that?' I had no idea." She did some research and found out that they were the dinosaur shrimp.