I thought evolution took thousands of years?
Sea monkeys are geneticaly enginered brine shrimp. (Sorry about the spelling)
They are actually different.
Sea monkeys grow much bigger, live much longer etc.
How did a person breed brine shrimp to be sea monkeys in just a few years?
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3 Responses to How did a person breed brine shrimp to be sea monkeys in just a few years?
Brine shrimp are ‘sea monkeys’.
It’s just a marketing gimmick.
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It’s exactly as the first answerer said.
Brine shrimp & “Sea Monkeys” are the exact same thing.
“Sea Monkeys” are just a name a company used to sell them.
And whoever is giving thumbs downs obviously doesn’t know their sources. As stated here on the official Sea Monkey website, Sea Monkeys are in fact Brine Shrimp:
Sea-Monkeys® are a unique species of brine shrimp, known by the scientific name of Artemia NYOS. We not only unlocked the most elusive secrets of their life cycle, we created new formulas to keep them alive under conditions found in the average home—an accomplishment never before achieved! Finally, after years of crossbreeding, we developed a hybrid. These amazing new hybrids grow larger and live longer than any “natural” variety of brine shrimp. Resulting from the most exquisitely sophisticated “aquaculture technology”, by true pioneers in this science, only the utmost resources of a leading marine biological research center working for a span of many years has made this project a complete success.
EDIT–
As you have added, they do grow larger, but not by much. If they’re well taken care of they can grow to about 1/2 an inch while common ones will only grow to a little over a centimeter. This is because the genetic makeup (DNA) of the Sea Monkeys has been modified through a lot of cross breading. They would take the largest and strongest Brine Shrimp and breed them and their offspring to produce a larger, stronger breed of Brine Shrimp.
I breed brine shrimp to feed to my fish.
http://www.sea-monkeys.com/html/aboutsm/whatarethey.html
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Sea monkeys are indeed (a subspecies of) brine shrimp – the two are NOT separate species – they can interbreed and produce fertile offspring (which are still brine shrimp). They simply were bred selectively (artificial selection) for larger size and longer life span, which would make them more suitable as “pets”.
This process (although it isn’t per se “evolution”) only took a “few years” because the lifespan and generation time of the brine shrimp is so short, geno- and phenotypic changes can be selected for rapidly. You have to realize that this is over the course of several hundreds of generations of brine shrimp – but which to us is only a few years. The same goes for any short-lived organism, like bacteria and viruses (think the high mutation and evolution rates of the HIV virus!).
I breed brine shrimp to feed to my fish.
http://www.sea-monkeys.com/html/aboutsm/whatarethey.html
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