The strange two-color strange shrimp in the mountain village of Yunnan is resistant to high temperature and is not afraid of boiling water. The centuries-old pond has been drunk?
The local villagers said: "I have never seen such a thing. It looks a bit like a shrimp, but it is different from ordinary shrimp. People in our village just guessed, could it be some alien species?"
After discovering the mysterious "strange shrimp", the villagers quickly contacted the relevant local departments. As a result, after testing by experts, it was found that this kind of "strange shrimp" had never appeared before.
So, what kind of species is this "strange shrimp"? Why did it appear in the village? How will its appearance affect the village?
1. Accidentally caught mysterious strange shrimp
On September 1, 2008, Kong Weilei, who lives in Jinma Town, Luxi County, Yunnan Province, went to the village pond to catch fish with his friends as usual with a fishing net and bucket.
Before officially fishing, he took half a bucket of river water and put it on the bank. Then he chose a place with eddy currents, took a good pose, and quietly waited for the fish to appear.
After a while, he sensed movement in the water, and he immediately lowered the net, but when he lifted the net, he found that only a few loaches were picked up this time, and there were no other fish.
This disappointed Conville and his partners, but they still put the loach into the bucket, and then they got ready and waited for the fish to take the bait again, but this time the result still disappointed them.
Kongweilei's partner was a little puzzled when he looked at the fish. He glanced at Kongweilei and said, "What is this thing? Why is one piece red and the other white?"
"Look clearly, it's not white, it's transparent, why does it look like a shrimp to me?" Conville corrected his partner by looking at what was in front of him.
A few people stared at the "strange shrimp" with a transparent upper body and an orange lower body, a little at a loss. They were all children who grew up in the mountains, but none of them knew what kind of species it was.
Convere put the "strange shrimp" into the bucket, and found that the little thing could swim backstroke. This stunned the few people present, so they hurried back to the village with a bucket in their hands, found a respected old man in the village, and wanted to ask what it was.
When the old man saw the three young men rushing over with buckets, he thought they were going to invite the old man to eat fish, but it turned out that they were asking him to recognize something. The old man sighed helplessly, and took out his own from the pocket of his coat. Reading glasses.
After blowing the lens in detail, he put it on and stared at the "strange shrimp" in the bucket for a long time, which made Convere a little impatient, "Master, did you see clearly? What the hell is this? "
"It's really hard to say. I've lived such an old age, but I haven't seen this thing before." The old man took off his reading glasses and scratched his head helplessly.
Seeing that even such a respected old man in the village didn't know what it was, Kongweile panicked instantly. Could it be that this "strange shrimp" is an alien species?
Soon, the news that the strange shrimp was found in the village spread like wildfire. After people from the Luxi County Aquatic Products Workstation and Luxi TV Station found out, they sent people to the village to investigate, and the first step they came to investigate was to find Kong Weilei .
2. Preliminary investigation, observation of "strange shrimp"
That afternoon, Yin Jianping, deputy director of the county fishery station, and TV reporters came to the village one after another. Under the leadership of Kong Weilei, they saw the so-called "strange shrimp".
As a senior aquatic worker, Yin Jianping has enough understanding of the aquatic life in Luxi County. In his opinion, there is no aquatic life that he does not know. However, when he saw the "strange shrimp" displayed by Kongweilei At that time, it was true and failed to recognize it.
"I am ashamed to say that I have worked in our county for more than 20 years, and I have come into contact with countless aquatic creatures. This is the first time I have seen a 'strange shrimp' like this." Yin Jianping rubbed his head , said with some embarrassment.
Seeing that even Yin Jianping couldn't recognize the "strange shrimp", the villagers couldn't help feeling a little panicked. Could it be that this "strange shrimp" is really a foreign species?
Why did this "strange shrimp" suddenly appear in this pond where our ancestors have lived for generations? At this time, some villagers remembered that the pond dried up the year before. Could it be because of the appearance of this "strange shrimp"?
Speaking of the history of this pond, it must have been several hundred years at least, and it has not dried up for so many years. However, when it suddenly dried up the year before, many people could not find the reason at that time. This "strange shrimp" appeared.
Yin Jianping calmed down the emotions of the villagers and told them not to worry. When he took these shrimps home to study, he would definitely know what they were.
After bringing these "strange shrimps" back to the aquatic product station, Yin Jianping observed them carefully. He found that each of these little guys was about 3 to 4 centimeters long. The upper part of the body was transparent white, and the lower body was white. It is bright orange.
Through the transparent upper body, the structure of the internal organs can almost be seen, and even the intestines are clearly visible. There is a pair of antennae on the head, and the eyes are more prominent. The tail fork is divided into two branches, and there are cilia.
After the preliminary observation, Yin Jianping was going to start looking up information, trying to figure out the true identity of this "strange shrimp". But what he didn't expect was that these little guys died one after another within a few days after being brought back to the aquatic product center.
The sudden death of the little ones brought Yin Jianping's research to a bottleneck. At this time, he heard that there were some "strange shrimps" in Kongweilei's home, so he hurriedly drove to the village with his people.
Kong Weilei saw Yin Jianping and his team's sudden visit, and after learning about their intentions, he said with regret: "It's a coincidence that you came here. All the 'strange shrimps' I raised are also dead."
Hearing Kong Weilei's words, Yin Jianping was a little surprised. How could these "strange shrimps" all die one after another? After their observation and analysis, they finally came to a conclusion.
The cause of death is most likely due to their short life cycle, or it may be due to lack of food and inadaptability to the water environment.
After guessing the possible cause of death, the staff of the fishery station went to the old pond again, collected 16 "strange shrimps" and brought them back to raise.
At the same time, they also sent the information of the last observation to the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, hoping that the institute could help them identify the true identities of these little guys.
3. Verification of identity is the first discovery in China
Shu Shusen of the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, after receiving the information from the Aquatic Products Station, compared the photos, and quickly made a preliminary judgment. In his opinion, these "strange shrimps" are likely to be "fairy shrimps". shrimp".
The scientific name of "fairy shrimp" is "branch-front worm". Because of its beautiful appearance, it is called "fairy shrimp".
However, based on the photos alone, Shu Shusen was not completely sure of his conjecture, so on September 17, he personally went to the Luxi Old Reservoir to take samples.
This time the sampling opportunity is rare, Shu Shusen and his colleagues, in addition to collecting these "strange shrimps", also tested the water in the pond, and found that the water here is weakly alkaline, and the annual temperature is around 20 degrees , other than that, there are no other abnormalities.
After the test, Shu Shusen stood up and said to the surrounding villagers: "Folks, don't worry, these shrimps are not harmful to humans. They have existed on this earth for nearly 200 million years. They are from the same period as dinosaurs. But their lifespan is very short, the longest is no more than two or three months."
After hearing Shu Shusen's words, the villagers put their hearts back in place. After completing the sampling work, Shu Shusen's team quickly returned to the research institute and immediately conducted research on the "strange shrimp".
Through microscope observation, Shu Shusen found that the detailed structure and body functions of these "strange shrimps" are slightly inconsistent with the characteristics of "fairy shrimps". So if this is not a "fairy shrimp", what is it?
In order to find out the identity of this "strange shrimp", the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences decided to send the data to experts in Beijing. After consulting the data, the experts in Beijing found that there is no such "strange shrimp" in the biological book currently recorded. "The presence.
But this is not difficult for our experts. Soon, the experts in Beijing contacted foreign zoologists. After comparing the literature in the world, the foreign experts gave a clear answer and determined that this is an ancient animal on the earth. Species, Spirocephala .
4. Identify identity and finally reveal the secret
Spiralia is a species more beautiful than "fairy shrimp", but although it looks like a shrimp, it is not a real shrimp, and it cannot be eaten.
Some foreign experts once conducted experiments, put spinosta in boiling water at 100 degrees, not only could it be safe and sound, but it could also lay eggs in boiling water.
After knowing the true identity of the animals, the staff of the Luxi County Aquatic Products Station began to track and record their living habits. With the lessons learned from raising dead animals last time, the staff this time became extraordinarily Be careful.
However, what they didn't expect was that no matter how carefully they took care of them, these spinorias would not survive three months.
When the staff of the fishery station found out that the little ones had died, they felt a little sad, "I have taken care of them very carefully, but I didn't expect that they still haven't lived for a few months. Could it be that their lifespan is really so short? ?”
Through the joint research of the Fisheries Station and the Research Institute, it was found that the lifespan of these spiral worms is very short, whether it is artificially raised or naturally raised, it is generally only 1 to 3 months.
Moreover, they have extremely strict requirements on the living environment. Experts found through testing and research in the Luxi area that Luxi Bazi belongs to karst landform, and there is a large amount of groundwater under the pond. sufficient living conditions.
Speaking of this, there is only one question left, and that is, does the previous drying up of the pond have anything to do with the spinach worm? After investigation and research by experts, it was found that the drying up of the pond has nothing to do with these cute little guys, on the contrary, it has something to do with the groundwater.
It turns out that the reason why the old pond has not dried up for hundreds of years is precisely because of the continuous supply of groundwater. However, in the past few years, a large amount of soil fell into the pond due to the explosion of nearby flash floods, blocking the passage of groundwater.
If the channel is blocked, the groundwater below will not be able to continuously supply water to the pond. Over time, the water in the pond will naturally dry up. Once the water in the pond dries up, the freshwater fish in the pond will not be able to survive. .
However, loach is different, it can live in the soil, so even if there is no water in the pond, as long as there is mud, loach can survive.
While investigating the reason for the drying up of the pond, the experts also discovered a secret of the spiral worms. The eggs of these spiral worms can still be dormant.
Experts said: "Their males and females are easy to distinguish. The males are slightly larger. The first palate of the mouth is pincer-shaped, while the females are fan-shaped. Their eggs can be buried in the soil and survive for dozens of years in a dormant state." There is no problem for a year, and we will wait until the right opportunity to incubate."
After hearing the expert's words, everyone couldn't help being shocked. You say it has tenacious vitality. Its average lifespan is only three months, but you say its vitality is not tenacious. Not only can its eggs dormant, but it can also withstand high temperatures close to Baidu.
I have to say that the magic of nature is far beyond our imagination. Although those little guys live a short life, they may still have their eggs in places we can't see, and they will appear again when the right time comes.