Amazing find: Tourist finds the world's oldest animal in the middle of the desert

Created: 12/31/2022, 4:32 p.m

By: Stefanie Fischhaber

Triopse, also known as Tadpole Shrimp, are the oldest animals on earth.

A tourist found her in the middle of the desert.

(Archive image) © JM Barres/Imago

A tourist discovered an extremely rare animal species in Arizona.

In the middle of the desert he found some of the oldest creatures on earth.

Fredonia - How little explored the earth and the oceans are comes to light again and again through curious or special finds.

In the USA, a tourist from Israel has now made a special find: in the rock formation "The Wave" he made "living fossils".

He shared his find on Instagram.

Earth's oldest living creature: Tourist finds living fossils in Arizona

Israeli tourist and video creator Leibovitch shared his special find on Instagram.

In the rock formation "The Wave", which is located on the border between the US states of Arizona and Utah in the Grand Canyon, he found one of the oldest animal species on earth in the water.

The video features three-eyed tadpole-like creatures swimming around in the water.

These are so-called "Triopse", also called Tadpole Shrimp.

"This is the ultimate creature, the living fossil!

These little three-eyed buggers have been roaming the earth for hundreds of millions of years," Leibovitch wrote on Instagram.

He was surprised himself when he found the animals in a puddle in the middle of the desert.

Special find: Oldest creature in the world found in the middle of the desert

According to the Bavarian State Office for the Environment, Tadpole Shrimp have hardly changed for 200 million years.

They are characterized above all by the fact that “they develop very quickly in short-lived bodies of water and, if necessary, can survive for many years as permanent eggs until their developmental waters fill up again.” This is why the animals can also survive in the middle of the Arizona desert.

As Leibovitch explains, the eggs don't hatch until the triops babies know it's safe to come out or when they touch the water.

The animals were named after the Greek term for "three eyes".

In addition to two large compound eyes, triopses possess a small center eye that is equipped with photoreceptors that help with light detection.

They are sometimes referred to as tadpole shrimp because of their long tails, or "shield shrimp" because of their helmet-like shell.

Although triops are among the oldest creatures on earth, they are very rarely sighted.

A tourist on Mallorca also made a special discovery: she discovered a rare animal.

But even in this country, tourists always notice strange things.

An Englishman found a GoPro on the Zugspitze - and had a curious idea of ​​finding the owner.