What are Sea Monkeys?

Sea Monkeys are a type of brine shrimp. These shrimp create remarkably resilient eggs called cysts. Check out this BrainStuff episode and learn more about the secret behind Sea Monkeys.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff works a brain stuff.
It's Christian Seger. Have you ever wondered what sea monkeys are, Well, look,
I'm here to tell you they're not monkeys. It turns
out they're actually brine shrimp, which are these pretty cool
little creatures in and of themselves. And Brian shrimp are

(00:23):
found in salt lakes. These are little lakes that are
so high in salt content that you usually only find
these brine shrimp and the algae they feed on living
in there. Nothing else can survive, which makes the brine
shrimp and their algae friends extreme A files cool name, right.
The other cool thing about Brian shrimp is that they

(00:44):
can survive up to twenty five years encapsulated in what
are known as cysts. These are these kind of protective
layers that form around their eggs, and a lot of
Brian shrimp just kind of sit there in suspended animation,
and the cysts can actually dry out and survive just
sitting there on the vast drive planes of the salt

(01:06):
lake in Utah. Now, when you get sea monkeys, that
is what comes in the packet. Add some salt water
and the egg hatches and within about eight to ten days,
you have a fully grown, half inch Brian shrimp a
k a. A sea monkey. So now you know. Sea
monkeys are not monkeys, but they are Brian shrimp and

(01:27):
Brian shrimp. They're pretty cool. Check out the brain stuff
channel on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands
of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com