Fairy Shrimp

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live’.” [John 11:25]

Fairy shrimp are amazing little crustaceans that are related to sea shrimp and can be found in vernal ponds. A vernal pond is a temporary pool that usually appears in the spring. Also known as anostraca, these sea creatures are seldom more than three-quarters of an inch long and usually much smaller. They have 11 to 17 pair of legs that look more like feathery leaf-like appendages they use to a create a current for swimming, which they seem to prefer doing upside down. The current they create enables them to breathe through the front appendages, which are called gill legs. Fairy shrimp feed on algae, dead plants, and smaller animals caught in the current of water made by their appendages.

The fairy shrimp can suddenly appear in vernal ponds by the millions one year then completely disappear in the same pond for several following years. Females can produce eggs year round, which they carry in sacks behind their gill legs. But they have the uncanny ability to produce different kinds of eggs throughout the year.

For instance, just before a drought, fairy shrimp produce eggs that are encased in a hard-walled cyst or case that is so strong that the cystcovered eggs can dry up and hatch many years later. After being exposed to water the fairy shrimp eggs hatch out in only 30 hours. Fairy shrimp eggs have been subjected to boiling water and temperatures as low as minus 310 degrees Fahrenheit and they still remained viable. Eggs have even been hatched in a laboratory after 20 years, but it is possible these resilient little eggs might last hundreds or even thousands of years and still hatch! Recognizing how durable the eggs were, in 1962 Harold von Braunhut began to market the fairy shrimp to children as “Sea Monkeys” and has since made a fortune.

We don’t know how God can preserve the essence of life in a dormant egg or seed. We also don’t know how He can resurrect a dead body, but when we see so many miracles of life in the natural world should we not be inclined to believe He can do the supernatural? When Christ raised Lazarus from the dead (see John 11), the response was mixed. Some believed on Jesus, others plotted to kill the Savior. Do you think this miraculous resurrection was just a fairy tale?