Did You Know This Shrimp Is Being Attacked From The Inside‼️😱 Off the Pacific Northwest coast, the mud shrimp Upogebia pugettensis is dealing with a brutal invasive parasite called Orthione griffenis. This thing is not a worm. It’s an isopod, basically a tiny crustacean parasite. It is believed to be native to Asia, and researchers think it likely spread to the West Coast through human activity like ship traffic and ballast water. Now it’s been found from Alaska and British Columbia down along the West Coast. Here’s the shocking part: the parasite invades the shrimp’s gill chamber, attaches inside the body, and feeds on the shrimp’s hemolymph, basically the shrimp version of blood. It can weaken the shrimp, reduce its body weight, and absolutely wreck its ability to reproduce. In places like Yaquina Bay, studies have found heavy infestation rates, especially in females. And that matters because these mud shrimp are ecosystem engineers. Their burrows help move oxygen, nutrients, and water through the mudflat. When the shrimp decline, the whole mudflat community can change. Now here’s where it gets even crazier… Sometimes when animals, plants, shells, or organic material get buried in mud or sediment, minerals in groundwater start collecting around them. Over thousands or even millions of years, that mineral cement hardens into a rock-like ball called a concretion. Concretions often form around a nucleus like a shell, leaf, tooth, fossil, or decaying organic material, and they can preserve clues from ancient life. So one creature can be attacked by parasites while it’s alive… and then millions of years later, another creature can be locked inside stone as a fossil time capsule. Nature is wild! #Learning #Education #animals #nature - @jake.pnw