Tadpole Shrimp Are Coming For Your Rice | Deep Look

Tadpole shrimp are neither tadpoles nor shrimp. They’re time-traveling crustaceans called triops. Their eggs can spend years – even decades – frozen in time, waiting to hatch. When California rice growers flood their fields, they create the perfect conditions for hordes of these ravenous creatures to awaken. SUBSCRIBE to Deep Look! Please join our community on Patreon! DEEP LOOK is an ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small. --- Each spring, hungry hordes of tadpole shrimp find their way into the rice fields of California’s Central Valley and go to town munching on the young seedlings. Tadpole shrimp aren’t really tadpoles or shrimp, but they are crustaceans whose ancestors once lived in the sea. “They look like tiny horseshoe crabs,” says Ian Grettenberger, an integrative pest