Shrimp

Shrimp are small animals that live on the floor of oceans and lakes. There are over 2,000 different species of shrimp worldwide. Shrimp are invertebrates (animals lacking a backbone) that have a tough exoskeleton. Anatomy: Shrimp range from a small fraction of an inch to 9 inches (a few mm to 23 cm) long. These crustaceans have a thin, smooth, hard, and almost transparent exoskeleton. Shrimp vary widely in color; tropical varieties are often brightly colored. Shrimp have 5 pairs of jointed walking legs on the thorax, and they have 5 pairs of swimming legs (swimmerets) and 3 pairs of maxillae (feeding appendages) on the abdomen. The body, legs, swimmerets, and other appendages are segmented. Shrimp have two pairs of segmented sensory antennae, a tail fan, and compound eyes. Diet: Shrimp are omnivores; they eat plants and small animals. The unusual pistol shrimp kills or stuns its prey by making a very loud sound with a huge claw with a moveable, snapping appendage. Life Cycle: Female shrimp lay over a thousand eggs, which are attached to her swimming legs. The shrimp emerge as tiny, floating organisms, a component of zooplankton. After growing, they sink to the bottom, where they will live. As a shrimp grows, it often molts (losing its old shell and growing a new one). Predators: Shrimp are eaten by many animals, including many fish, many birds (including flamingos and loons), octopi, squid, cuttlefish, and people.

Classification: Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Arthropoda, Class Crustacea (crustaceans), Subclass Malacostraca, Order Decapoda, Suborder Natantia. Birds Mistake Wal-Mart Parking Lot for Lake
This post is about a rather odd and sad case of mistaken identity. The identity in question is not that of a person, or even of an animal, but of a parking lot. On 12/12/2011 night in Cedar City, Utah, over 4,000 eared grebes crashed into a Wal-Mart parking lot during a storm. Grebes are water birds and are the latest-migrating bird species in North America. The grebes that crashed were migrating through the area on their way to Mexico. It seems that they mistook the wet pavement of the parking lot for a large body of water. They swooped in by the thousands expecting to land onto smooth waters, but instead smashed into the hard pavement. Sadly, reports are putting the death toll at over 1,500 birds.