Triops Longicaudatus
Triops Longicaudatus Red
Triops Longicaudatus
Triops Longicaudatus Red
Triops food
Sea almond leaf
Aquarium filter
Lighting
Substrate
Decoration
Heating
Cleaning
ThermometerGuide
Triops – Survivors of prehistoric times, heroes of the universe
Over 220 million years ago, in an age that humans can barely imagine, the earth was a wild, untamed place. Vast primeval forests covered the continents, dinosaurs trudged through swamps and huge volcanoes spewed fire into a sky dotted with flying dinosaurs. In this distant world, long before the rise of mammals, lived the Triops – small, inconspicuous crustaceans with an ancient heritage.
They lived where other creatures did not survive: in shallow, warm pools that only existed for a few weeks a year. Within days they hatched, grew, ate, hunted, mated – and laid their offspring in the mud in the form of tiny permanent eggs. These eggs were an evolutionary miracle: they could dry out, freeze over, survive for decades, even centuries in the ground and only come back to life when the water returned. A perfect survival mechanism in a world that was constantly changing.
Triops were already old when the Tyrannosaurus rex was still a distant evolutionary dream.
Then came the great dying.
A huge asteroid hit the earth with the force of millions of nuclear bombs. The skies darkened, huge tsunamis flooded the coasts, and fire waves raced across the planet. The dinosaurs, once the undisputed rulers of the world, disappeared almost overnight. Entire ecosystems collapsed. But while the fate of the giants was sealed, small capsules of hope lay hidden in the dry mud – the eggs of the Triops.
They survived the chaos. Survived cold, heat, drought, darkness. Year after year, age after age. And when the rain fell, they returned. Again and again. Like a fleeting shadow of prehistoric times.
Millions of years passed. The world changed. Continents drifted apart. New species emerged and died out. Man came – and built cities, empires, machines. But somewhere, in quiet hollows and puddles, Triops still awoke. Almost unchanged. A living fossil. A silent witness to eternity.
In the present day, a German geobiologist named Dr Thorid Zierold set out to continue writing the story of these amazing creatures. Together with a team of researchers, she investigated the Triops’ incredible survival skills – and asked herself a bold question:
What if we were to send them into space?
Could their eggs survive the extreme conditions out there? The weightlessness, the radiation, the vibrations during take-off?
As part of a scientific project, selected Triops eggs were prepared, sealed and sent on board a space transporter – bound for the International Space Station (ISS). It was a journey into the future for a creature from the past.
Up there, around 400 kilometres above the earth, in complete silence and without gravity, the eggs stayed for months. No water. No light. No movement. And yet: they waited. Patiently. As they always had.
On their return, they were analysed. And then something happened that amazed even experienced scientists like Dr Zierold: some of the eggs actually hatched. Despite all the hardships. Despite the journey into space. Tiny Triops crawled out of the dust of prehistoric times – back in the light of our time.
This mission was more than an experiment. It was a symbol. A sign that even the most inconspicuous life forms have immeasurable value – and that survival often has nothing to do with strength or size, but with adaptation, patience and resilience.
Today, Triops swim in classrooms, research laboratories and living room aquariums. They fascinate children, biologists and space fans – and remind us that life can exist in many forms. And that some of them tell stories that are older than any myth, any book, any civilisation.
Perhaps one day they will not only be guests on the space station, but also colonists on distant worlds. Who knows – if one day we find a puddle of water on Mars, the first inhabitants there might not be humans, but small prehistoric crustaceans with a huge heritage: the Triops.
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