Sea Monkeys

[Olympusman]

Back in the 60s and 70s Sea Monkeys were advertised on the back of comic books. Basically they are brine shrimp Artemia salina. The Sea Monkeys are a hybrid named Artemia NYOS (New York Oceanographic Society) one of whose members participated in creating this hybrid. The details can be found at the website sea-monkeys.com.
I bought my kit from American Science & Surplus. I set up my aquarium on December 1 and am starting to see not only brine shrimp but also new arrivals. So far I have only gotten lateral views but am trying very hard to obtain anterior views. I'm using glycerine mounts in well slides.

[viktor j nilsson]

From what I can tell, there seems to be little evidence that commercially sold "sea monkeys" represent a lab-made hybrid species that is distinct from other, wild-harvested Artemia species like Artemia salina. I find it much more likely to be a marketing ploy from Harold von Braunhut. I'm actually a little surprised that no one has sequenced these guys (and other wild artemia species) to find out what they are.

[MarkSturtevant]

Very good! Any reference to sea monkeys triggers me to link to this absolutely fascinating but also rather disturbing documentary about the inventor who came up with selling these things as pets: https://boingboing.net/2016/12/28/the-r ... nkeys.html