Thread by @JimmyBernot

TANTULOCARIDA: FEMALES AND MALES BECOME PREGNANT WITH CLONES OF THEMSELVES! Saving 1 of my favorite crustaceans for the last days of #Crustmas [a thread]. Among the smallest arthropods, tantulocarids are parasites of other micro-crustaceans
All imgs: researchgate.net/publication/26…

Here you can see a male “pregnant” with a sexual adult stage of ITSELF in its abdomen! Hard to wrap your mind around how weird the life cycle of these animals is 🤯 [t/n]

In fact the life cycle is even crazier than that! The tantulus larva infects a small host crustacean (copepod, cumacean, or other). Then the tantulus becomes “pregnant” with dozens of cloned tantulus larvae (bottom) OR pregnant with adult sexual stages (male or female, top)

Its not even known if this is the whole life cycle! It may be even MORE complicated! The Tantulocarida are related to the Thecostraca (barnacles & relatives), but no nauplius has been identified in tantulocarids. There may be yet more stages of the life cycle to be discovered!

Honestly these may be the weirdest animals (in my opinion) and I consider myself a connoisseur of weird animals! 🤣 #teaminvert

If this is blowing your mind (it blows my mind everything time I think about it), comment and ask questions here and I will try to answer (I have so many questions too)!

If this is blowing your mind (it blows my mind everything time I think about it), comment and ask questions here and I will try to answer (I have so many questions too)!

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