Can you help me ID this critter?

[NM_Shooter]

My daughter and I were out on a RZR way out on the west mesa.  All the way up against the San Ysidro Pueblo.  We start out at a paved parking lot as far west as we can get, and head further out about 18 miles west of there.  We were in an arroyo shooting cans, and my daughter climbed up the arroyo walls to look for more targets.  She saw a huge clump of salt cedars, with tunnels going into them.  We went exploring, and found a desert "oasis" in the clump of trees.  Three ponds that we have named Puerco Ponds.  (Thank God we saw no snakes). As we were standing there goofing off, we looked into the water and saw that it had a lot of tadpoles in the water, and we also saw a bunch of these things. 

They have armored wings on them, and sort of look like horseshoe crabs.  I should have put a ruler next to it for reference, but the length is about 1.5" nose to tip of tail.  Some were bigger, up to 2" or so.  Check out the eyes.  They are not a compound eyes such as found on a lot of bugs.







Here's the flip side...



They propel themselves with little flippered feathery stumps on the bottom, which they move in a sinusoidal fashion. 

Any idea what they might be?

[Native_NM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Triops-longicaudatus-dorsal-ventral-edit2.jpg

[Native_NM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triops_longicaudatus

[glenn kangiser]

Cool - I thought it looked rather prehistoric.

[peternap]

How do they taste?

[firefox]

Old and crusty?
Bruce

[Native_NM]

It appears that you found a variety of the Silvery Triops longicaudatus, which are endangered.  Hide all the evidence.  Send me a pint of Hagen-Daz and I won't rat you out,   

For the non-New Mexicans, the "Silvery" reference has no meaning, and you probably won't get the humor. 

[MountainDon]

.....which are endangered

Oh crap! I was wondering about that.

[considerations]

Who needs science fiction?  Just grab a bucket of pond water and a microscope!

[diyfrank]

That is one ugly mutha,  put it back and go wash your hands!

[NM_Shooter]

These things seem to have missed the evolutionary bus.  It is a crustacean that dates back 200M years!  When the ponds dry up, their eggs go into a preserved cyst-like state, and can survive pretty harsh conditions much like "sea monkeys".  I found out that you can buy them as "pets".  My daughter is thinking about creating a science project around them to test the durability of the eggs in harsh environments.

[glenn kangiser]

Cool idea and cool find.

[Native_NM]

My daughter is thinking about creating a science project around them to test the durability of the eggs in harsh environments.

Not in NM - at least not anymore.  Any science experiment that harms or could potentially harm a living creature is off-limits (or was a few years ago).  Thank you, PETA or Sierra Club or whoever was responsible.  Abortion?  Not a problem there.  Kill a crustacean and you're going to the big house.   

It is that consistency and hypocrisy thing I always complain about.