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On July 2, an employee of the China Railway Construction Corporation found some weird red-tailed creatures in a pond next to the main road in Lianyungang City, eastern China's Jiangsu Province.
These tiny creatures, only a few millimeters long, belong to a type of crustaceans that had existed since the period of the dinosaurs. They are the anostraca, commonly known as the fairy shrimp, an incredible animal that can survive in hypersaline waters.
There are 300 known species of anostraca in the world now. /VCG Photo
The fairy shrimp swims with its ventral side facing up, appearing to be swimming "upside down." /VCG Photo
Fairy shrimps can survive in waterbodies in extreme environments such as deserts and the Antarctica. /VCG Photo
Fairy shrimps are an important food source for many birds and fish. /VCG Photo
Presently, fairy shrimps could be found throughout the seven continents. These fierce little creatures have a distinctive trick to overcome extreme conditions. They can enter diapause, a state in which their metabolism is arrested, like eggs, or cysts.
In this way, they can live through drought, hypersalinity, frost, and many other extreme environmental changes.
(Cover: VCG. )
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