Branchiopod crustaceans / ‘prehistoric’ shrimp

digital artwork, 2024

for exhibitions at the Urweltmuseum GEOSKOP Burg Lichtenberg and Naturkundemuseum Coburg

more about ‘Aquasaur’ shrimp and their kin / further arthropod line drawings

Examples of Branchiopoda (Pancrustacea), clockwise: Tadpole shrimp (Notostraca including triops), clam shrimp (the paraphyletic Conchostraca), fairy shrimp (Anostraca), and water flea (Anomopoda). 

The colour-rendered forms are also included in the line drawing panoply, alongside fossil relatives. Fairy shrimp: Lepidocaris (Rhynie chert, Lower Devonian) & Anostraca (extant). Water flea: Daphnia sp. (extant). Clam shrimp: Pseudoestheria, Magniestheria, and Limnadia (Carboniferous, Triassic and extant, respectively). Tadpole shrimp, not necessarily forming a clade: Thuringiops, a member of Kazacharthra, Triops cf. minor, and T. cancriformis (Permian, Triassic, Triassic, and extant, respectively).