Sea Monkeys

Aliens among usWhat is the connection betweenSea-Monkeys® and aliens? Believeit or not NASA scientiststhink it is possible that some alien lifemight resemble Sea-Monkeys®.Sea-Monkeys® are a species of brineshrimp that belong to a group of animalscalled Branchiopods. These are ancientanimals that existed before insects andfish. Scientists think Branchiopods mightgive us clues about searching forlife in hostile environmentssuch as Mars and Jupiter’smoon Europa.SEA-MONKEYS ® FUN FACTSDid you know? Sea-Monkeys®Branchiopods like Sea-Monkeys® can potentiallylast for hundreds ofyears as eggs, then hatchwhen they are exposed towater. They can act liketime-travelers asleep inbiological time capsulesand this allows them tosurvive in veryharsh environments.GROSS!You can tell when Sea-monkeysare full because they’ll have ag green or brown stripegoing down thecenter of their bodies.• breathe through their legs, using long tubes thatcome up from their feet.• don’t have kidneys in their abdomenlike humans. Their kidneys arelocated in their heads.• give birth to botheggs and live babies.(You might be able to see somedark circles on some of their tails.They are eggs.)• are born with one eye but developtwo more, so adults have three.SEA MONKEYSin SPACE!Sea Monkeys ® went up in theSpace Shuttle Discovery onOctober 29, 1998, with U.S.Senator John Glenn!They have travelled on the SpaceShuttle Endeavour, the USML-1Columbia, and the Space ShuttleAtlantis, and spent time in the MirSpace Station.Their eggs have been carried intospace and placed outside thespace vehicle. After being exposedto the full radiation of the sun andthe stresses of the vacuum ofspace, the eggs were brought backto Earth and successfully hatched.AstrobiologyBiogeocatalysisResearch CenterVisit abrc.montana.edu. For more info on MSU scienceoutreach and events visit www.montana.edu/outreach

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