Up Next
Back to Show
Deep Look
Tadpole Shrimp Are Coming For Your Rice
Season 8
Episode 17
Tadpole shrimp are neither tadpoles nor shrimp. They’re time-traveling crustaceans called triops. Their eggs can spend years – even decades – frozen in time, waiting to hatch. When California rice growers flood their fields, they create the perfect conditions for hordes of these ravenous creatures to awaken.
Support Provided By
4:08
Cone Snails have an arsenal of tools and weapons under their pretty shells.
3:50
Crow funerals aren't the solemn events that we hold for our dead. What's really going on?
3:04
To reproduce, vibrant tumbleweeds need to turn into rolling brown skeletons.
3:15
This catfish looks confused, but swimming belly-up helps it camouflage and breathe better.
3:11
Once used for questionable treatments, leeches now help doctors to reattach body parts.
3:32
A tick uses a mouth of hooks to cling to you. But there *is* a way to pull it out.
3:13
Most firefly flashes are pure romance. One copycat uses them to lure others to their doom.
3:28
Some very special physics help Pacific mole crabs dig with astonishing speed.
3:49
With flowers hidden inside, the corpse flower plays dead to lure some unusual pollinators.
4:42
The female black widow has a bad reputation, but her male counterpart is a total jerk.
4:14
When it comes to hooking up, male mantises have good reason to fear commitment.
3:50
Pine beetles can fell a mighty ponderosa pine, but the forest fights back. Who will win?