The strange two-colored shrimp in the mountain village of Yunnan is resistant to high temperature and is not afraid of boiling water. The ponds of hundreds of years have been drained?
The local villager said: "I have never seen anything like this before. It looks a bit like a shrimp, but it is different from ordinary shrimp. People in our village guessed, could it be an alien species?"
After discovering the mysterious "strange shrimp", the villagers quickly contacted the relevant local departments. As a result, the experts found that this "strange shrimp" had never appeared before.
So, what kind of species is this "strange shrimp"? Why does it appear in the village? How will it 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's pond to fish for fish with his friends as usual, holding a fishing net and a bucket.
Before the official fishing, he took a small half bucket of river water and placed it on the bank. Then he chose a place with eddy currents, put on a pose, and quietly waited for the fish to appear.
After a while, he noticed that there was movement in the water, and he immediately dropped the net. As a result, when he lifted the net, he found that only a few loaches were caught this time, and there were no other fish.
This made Kongweilei and his partners a little disappointed, but they still put the loach into the bucket, and then they prepared and waited for the fish to take the bait again, but this time, the result was still a big disappointment to them.
Kong Wei Lei's partner looked at the fish with some doubts, glanced at Kong Wei Lei and said, "What is this? Why is it red and white?"
"You can see clearly, this is not white, this is transparent, how can I look like a shrimp?" Kong Weilai corrected his partner's statement by looking at the things in front of him.
Several people stared at the "strange shrimp" with a transparent upper body and an orange-red lower body. They were a little overwhelmed. They were all children who grew up in the mountains, but none of them knew what species it was.
Kong Wei Lei put the "strange shrimp" into the bucket, and found that this little thing could even backstroke. This stunned several people present, so they hurriedly returned to the village with buckets, and found a respected old man in the village, and wanted to ask what this thing was.
When the old man saw these 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 jacket. Reading glasses.
After blowing on the lens in detail, he put it on, stared at the "weird shrimp" in the bucket for a long time, and saw that Kong Weilai was a little impatient, "Master, can you see clearly? What the hell is this? "
"It's really hard to say. I've lived so many years, and I've never seen such a thing." The old man took off his reading glasses and scratched his head helplessly.
Seeing that even such a highly respected old man in the village didn't know what it was, Kong Wei Lei was instantly panicked. Could it be that this "strange shrimp" is an alien species?
Soon, the news of the strange shrimps found in the village spread like wildfire. After the people from Luxi County Fishery Workstation and Luxi TV Station learned about it, they sent people to the village to investigate. The first step for them to investigate was to find Kong Weilei. .
2. Preliminary investigation and observation of "strange shrimp"
That afternoon, Yin Jianping, deputy head 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 aquaculture worker, Yin Jianping has a sufficient understanding of aquatic creatures in Luxi County. In his opinion, there are no aquatic creatures that he does not know. However, when he saw the "strange shrimp" displayed by Kong Weilei , but it was not recognized.
"Ashamed to say, I have worked in our county for more than 20 years, and I have come into contact with countless aquatic creatures. It is the first time I have seen a 'weird shrimp' like this." Yin Jianping patted his head . , said somewhat embarrassedly.
When the villagers saw that even Yin Jianping couldn't recognize this "strange shrimp", they couldn't help but panic. Could it be that this "weird shrimp" is really an alien species?
The ancestors have lived in this pond for generations, why did this "strange shrimp" suddenly appear? At this time, some villagers remembered that the pond dried up the previous year. Could it be caused by the appearance of this "strange shrimp"?
To talk about the history of this pond, it must be at least hundreds of years old. It has not dried up for so many years. However, when it suddenly dried up the previous year, many people could not find the reason. This "strange shrimp" appeared.
Yin Jianping soothed the villagers and told them not to worry. When he took these shrimps back to study, he would definitely know what they were.
After bringing these "weird shrimps" back to the aquatic station, Yin Jianping carefully observed these "weird shrimps" and 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 part 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, the eyes are also more prominent, the tail is divided into two branches, and there are cilia.
After the initial observation, Yin Jianping was going to start checking the information, trying to find out the true identity of this "strange shrimp". But what he didn't expect was that these little guys died a few days after being brought back to the aquatic center.
The sudden death of the little guys made Yin Jianping's research reach a bottleneck. At this time, he heard that Kong Weilei's house still kept some "strange shrimp", so he hurriedly drove someone to the village.
Kong Weilei saw that Yin Jianping and others suddenly came to visit, and after learning of their intentions, he said with regret, "It's really unfortunate that you guys are here, and all the 'weird shrimp' I raised have died."
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, but also due to lack of food and poor adaptation to the aquatic environment.
After guessing the possible cause of death, the staff of the aquatic station went to the old pond again and collected 16 "strange shrimp" to bring back to raise.
At the same time, they also sent the data of the last observation to the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, hoping that the institute would help them identify the true identities of these little guys.
3. Verifying 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 station, made a preliminary judgment by comparing the photos. In his opinion, these "strange shrimps" are likely to be "fairies". shrimp".
The scientific name of "Fairy Shrimp" is "Branchia", because of its beautiful appearance, it is called "Fairy Shrimp".
However, based on the photos alone, Shu Shusen could not be completely sure of his conjecture, so on September 17, he personally went to the old Luxi pond for sampling.
This 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 temperature is around 20 degrees all year round. , other than that, there are no other exceptions.
After the inspection, Shu Shusen stood up and faced the onlookers and said, "Don't worry, folks, these shrimps are not harmful to humans. They have existed on this earth for nearly 200 million years, and they were at the same time as dinosaurs. However, their lifespan is very short, the longest is only two or three months."
After listening to Shu Shusen's words, the villagers put their dangling hearts back in place. Shu Shusen's team, who completed the sampling work, 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 shrimp" were slightly inconsistent with the characteristics of "fairy shrimp", so if this was not "fairy shrimp", what would it be?
In order to find out the identity of this "strange shrimp", the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences decided to send the information to experts in Beijing. After consulting the information, the experts in Beijing found that there was no such "weird shrimp" in the currently recorded biological book. "The presence.
But this is not difficult for our experts. Soon, experts in Beijing contacted foreign zoologists. Through the comparison of documents in the world, foreign experts gave a clear answer and believed that this was an ancient Species, Trichinella .
Fourth, identify the identity, and finally reveal the secret
Trichinella is a more beautiful species than the "fairy shrimp", but although it looks like a shrimp, it is not a real shrimp, and it is not edible.
Some foreign experts have done experiments, put Trichinella in boiling water of 100 degrees, it can not only be safe and sound, but also lay eggs in boiling water.
After knowing the true identity of the animals, the staff of the Luxi County Aquatic Station began to track and record their living habits. With the lessons from the last time they died, the staff this time became extraordinarily special. Be careful.
However, what they didn't expect was that, no matter how carefully they took care of them, these worms would not survive for three months.
When the staff of the aquatic station found out that the little ones were dead, they felt a little sad, "I have been taking care of them very carefully, but I didn't expect to live for a few months. Could it be that their lifespan is really so short? ?"
A joint study by the Aquatic Station and the Research Institute found that the lifespan of these Trichinella worms is very short, generally only 1 to 3 months, whether they are artificially raised or naturally raised.
Moreover, they have extremely strict requirements for the living environment. Experts have found through the detection and research of the Luxi area that the Luxi Bazi belongs to the karst landform, and there is a large amount of groundwater in the underground of the pond, which gives Trichinella adequate living conditions.
Having said that, there is only one question left, that is, does the drying up of the pond have anything to do with this Trichinella 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 a certain relationship with the groundwater.
It turned 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 nearby flash floods, blocking the channel of groundwater.
When the channel is blocked, the groundwater below cannot continuously supply water to the pond. Over time, the water in the pond will naturally dry up, and once the water in the pond dries up, the freshwater fish in the original pond will not be able to survive. .
However, the 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, the loach can survive.
While investigating the cause of the dry ponds, the experts also discovered a secret of the Trichinella worms, the eggs of which are still dormant.
The expert said: "Their males and females are easy to distinguish, the males are slightly larger, the first large palate in the mouth is pincer-shaped, while the females are fan-shaped. Their eggs can be buried in the soil and survive for dozens of times in a dormant state. There is no problem for years, and we will wait until the right opportunity to incubate."
After listening to the experts' words, everyone could not help but be shocked. You said that its vitality is tenacious, and its average life span is only three months, but you said that its vitality is not tenacious. Not only can its eggs sleep, but it can also withstand the high temperature of Baidu.
I have to say that the magic of nature is far beyond our imagination. Although those little guys lived a short life, they may still keep their eggs in places we can't see, and they will reappear when the right time comes.