Sunday 1 August 2010

The Oldest Species On Earth

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It was almost bound to be small and seemingly insignificant but the oldest species on earth is a shrimp, ironic given the connotations of its name in the English language.

Rather than being the runt, the squirt and the general nobody its name implies, this little guy, (the Horseshoe shrimp to friends but Triops cancriformis rather more formally) has staying power. It is almost the same now as it was two hundred million years ago.

(thanks Robert-John)

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