This web site consists of static web pages, except for the comments on the Comment Here page. However, I may make corrections or additions from time to time. I will use this page to inform visitors of changed or added content so they will not have to waste lots of time clicking and scrolling to see if anything is new.

July 4, 2024

Denton Belk considered the specimens that he had identified as Branchinecta mackini a previously unrecognized species and named it Branchinecta readingi. All the fairy shrimp I had previously called B. mackini are consequently B. readingi. They are in the Antelope Hills and Great Divide Basin.

Following Denton Belk’s death, the paludosa-like branchinectid and lindahli-like branchinectid that he thought might be previously unrecognized species were named and described as Branchinecta serrata and Branchinecta constricta, respectively. B. serrata is only in Bull Canyon Pond in the Antelope Hills. The fairy shrimp Denton Belk had identified as B. paludosa are still B. paludosa. B. constricta is in the Granite Mountains and Southern Laramie Range. The fairy shrimp Denton Belk had identified as B. lindahli are still B. lindahli.

The fairy shrimp Denton Belk had identified as Branchinecta campestris have been determined to be a previously unrecognized species, Branchinecta lateralis. All the fairy shrimp I had previously called B. campestris are consequently B. lateralis. They are in the Great Divide Basin, the Granite Mountains, and the southern Laramie Basin.

I have changed the species names on the various locality pages as appropriate and in the spreadsheets on the Data page.

February 1, 2024

The oldest Anostraca fossils are in 365 million years old pond sediments and are not genus Gilsonicaris in 419 million years old marine sediments:

In Moore (1969), Gilsonicaris from Lower Devonian (393-419 million years old) marine rocks was listed as the oldest anostracan fossil. Gueriau and others (2023) made a convincing argument that it is not an anostracan, it is an annelid. I have rewritten sections of the Taxonomy and Origin of Anostraca page to reflect this.

I have also updated the Taxonomy and Origin of Anostraca page with information on the branchiopod fossils found in terrestrial sediments at the Strud locality in Belgium (Gueriau and others, 2016). These 365 million years old rocks appear to have the oldest discovered anostracan and notostracan fossils. This occurrence confirms the early adoption of ephemeral pond habitats by branchiopods as suggested by fossils in the 412 million years old Rhynie Chert.

Updated spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet (on Data page) listing the pond visit data has been updated with the 2023 observations. The coordinates of the following ponds have been changed to GPS coordinates collected in 2023 from the previous estimates which used The National Map aerial imagery. The only meaningful change was for Teels Marsh Playa Lake because I finally found water in 2024.

• “Silver Lake” and Wolf Creek Northeast Dry Lake (Owyhee Desert).
• Small Rare Plant Habitat Pond and Large Rare Plant Habitat Pond (Pine Grove Hills).
• Teels Marsh Playa Lake (Teels Marsh).
• Wheeler Peak Pond (Sweetwater Mountains).

In addition, the spreadsheet now has separate rows for each of the 12 West Northumberland Road Ponds in Big Smoky Valley so that their pond sizes and biota can be tracked independently.

The entries for Boulder Flats Ponds in the Sweetwater Mountains were deleted because the chances of finding water there seem too low to bother after my 2023 visit.

Bombing range expansion affects Gabbs Valley ponds.

The Gabbs Valley page has been updated with a couple of paragraphs on the expansion of the B-17 bombing range of the Navy’s Fallon Range Training Complex. The expansion will make the ponds I visited there and possibly others inaccessible to the public. The approval for increasing the size of the Fallon Range Training Complex by about 4 times from 940 square kilometers (363 square miles, 232,284 acres), to 3,637 square kilometers (1,404 square miles, 898,758 acres) (Final Environmental Impact Statement, v.1, p. 2-45, pdf page 189 at frtcmodernization.com/Documents) is a good example of how the leaders of a federal agency like the Department of Navy can get what they want without an adequate environmental impact statement and without exercising common courtesy to those affected or common sense with respect to the agency’s own interests. I provide details of the Navy’s failings and of the wide-ranging National Defense Authorization Act that approved its flawed plans in the section “2023 Fallon Range Training Complex Expansion” on the Gabbs Valley page.

January 22, 2024

Last update for my 2023 pond visits.

1. I found water and branchiopods in 2 ponds off US 6/US 95 east of Tonopah on my drive back from Big Smoky Valley on September 1. I’ve created a new web page for McLeans Valley with information on Kibby Wells Road Junction Pond and Windy Gravel Pit Pond. The tadpole shrimp in Windy Gravel Pit Pond weren’t churning up a lot of mud, like they usually do, because the pond bottom was gravel and sand. They were obviously finding enough to eat but that must be hard on the legs. Watch the video.
2. Water on the playa in Big Smoky Valley and evidence of sufficient thunderstorm activity at Kibby Wells Road Junction Pond put the playa of Kibby Flat in play. Afraid of missing a rare chance, I drove out to Monte Cristo Valley on September 6. Just in time. Barely 3 cm of water remained on a small part of Kibby Flat Playa Lake. I found not 1, not 2, but all 3 large branchiopods in the shallow water. In spite of the opaque water, I was able to collect videos of clam shrimp and tadpole shrimp because they necessarily swam close to the surface at times.

I’ve created a Tadpole Shrimp Videos page and a Clam Shrimp and Ostracod Videos page so that visitors can more easily find videos of those subjects. The same videos appear with the dated pond visit descriptions, which have photographs and details of the branchiopod and ostracod occurrences.

January 15, 2024

After repeated surprises regarding pond status and fairy shrimp populations, the idea that the summer thunderstorms had changed everything for branchiopods in western Nevada finally sank in. I broadened my outlook to consider possibilities that would be remote in a normal summer.

1. I drove out to Big Smoky Valley on August 30 hoping to find natural ponds on the playa. I visited 2 playa lakes. I couldn’t get to one because of the soft mud and the other one lacked fairy shrimp. I also found some smaller ponds, which also lacked fairy shrimp. That was all pretty ordinary but the fairy shrimp again hit me with a surprise, like a meteorite from Mars. The surprise of the trip was seeing fairy shrimp in the flowing inlet to one of the playa lakes. It is not normal to find fairy shrimp in flowing water because the eggs usually get washed downstream. After that, thanks to my survey in 2022 of the ponds along the West Northumberland Road, I determined that 9 of the 11 ponds had water and I found a new pond. Of the ponds with water, most had fairy shrimp. I collected 2 more videos.
2. From Big Smoky Valley, I drove over the Toquima Range to Monitor Valley on August 31. Water damage along the road was obvious but it wasn’t problematic. Monitor Playa Lake was as full as it had been when I first visited in 2019. However, being later in the season, the near-shore areas were completely overgrown with submerged vegetation. My rubber boots weren’t tall enough for me to reach vegetation-free water, if there was any. Although I wasn’t too disappointed about Monitor Playa Lake, another surprise awaited: there was a roadside pond with fairy shrimp on the road to get to the lake.

January 8, 2024

July fairy shrimp in “Alkali Lake” and Bald Mountain Rabbitbrush Flat Pond opened up other possibilities. Maybe this would be a year for fairy shrimp in Boulder Flats Ponds in the Sweetwater Mountains. To check, and to beat the heat, I hiked up to Boulder Flats on July 27. The ponds were quite dry even though there were still snowbanks in the trees to the north. As a result, I have eliminated the Boulder Flats Ponds from Fairy Shrimp Chronicles. The chances of finding water are too slim.

1. After the disappointment at Boulder Flats Ponds, I continued on to Wheeler Peak Pond. I have added a July 27 description to the Sweetwater Mountains page. Still no luck there.
2. The July and August thunderstorms were heavy over the Gabbs Valley Range. Win Wan Corral Pond was unseasonably full when I happened upon it on August 24. I was surprised to find Thamnocephalus platyurus, which can be identified macroscopically, in addition to smaller fairy shrimp and got them on video. I was curious about how long the water would last so I went back on October 12 and found ostracods but no fairy shrimp. The ostracods were also there on October 24 and December 5. Relatively deep water is lasting through the winter. I took videos of the ostracods, too.
3. Water persisting in Garfield 5890 Saddle Pond (Garfield Hills) from August 1 through August 15 and the abundance of water in Win Wan Corral Pond on August 24 got me wondering about Playa Wire Gate Pond. I’ve updated the Soda Spring Valley page with my visit on August 28. The fairy shrimp seemed to be doing well in the warm water and were joined by tadpole shrimp and water boatmen.

January 3, 2024

If “Alkali Lake”, at 2,135 m, had abundant water on July 6, maybe the Pine Grove Hills ponds, at 2,100-2,400 m, did too.

1. I checked on the Pine Grove Hills ponds on July 13. All 5 had plenty of water but not all had fairy shrimp. There was so much emergent grass in the ponds that they looked like different ecosystems compared to March-May but that is probably just normal seasonal variation. In keeping with the theme of the unexpected for 2023, Bald Mountain “Dry” VABM Saddle Pond surprised me with clam shrimp and I collected videos of them in the clear water.

An easy way to find the newest pond descriptions and photographs on any given page is to search for the date of the visit as given in these updates, or just “2023”, once you get to the page. Ctrl-f opens a within-page search box in most browsers.

December 26, 2023

I revisited a couple of ponds in June where I had previously seen fairy shrimp but not because I expected them to have water. June is late for fairy shrimp in Nevada. Instead, I was just passing by or hiking in the vicinity and noticed they had water. More surprises.

1. Garfield 5890 Saddle Pond in the Garfield Hills is a small pond without much drainage area but thunderstorms in May and June were enough to (re)fill it up by June 20. Thunderstorms in July refilled it by August 1. More thunderstorms in August kept it from drying out and it still had water on October 5. The fairy shrimp didn’t survive through September but newly discovered tadpole shrimp and water boatmen did. Tadpole shrimp are industrious bottom feeders so I took videos of their antics.
2. “Alkali Lake” (Alkali Valley) not only had water on June 29, it was literally full, i.e., well above the grass line. It had abundant fairy shrimp and the water was clear. That resulted in what may be my best fairy shrimp videos yet (on July 6).

I was so impressed by the lucky longevity of the tadpole shrimp in Garfield 5890 Saddle Pond that I changed this web site’s slogan from “Life is an evaporating, ephemeral pond – Keep swimming.” to “Life is an evaporating, ephemeral pond . . . but it may rain – Keep swimming.”

December 20, 2023

Driving down US 50 in late April, I saw water where I had never seen it before. Maybe it was a once-in-a-decade chance. I came back to look for fairy shrimp on May 9 and again saw things I had never seen before.

1. One of the bodies of water I saw was Smith Creek US 50 Well Pond and I found Smith Creek US 50 Sagebrush Pond nearby thanks to the 7.5-minute topographic map. I also had time, barely, to visit Smith Creek Ranch Road Long Ditch Ponds, North Smith Creek Playa Channel Ponds, and North Smith Creek Playa Lake, all in Smith Creek Valley. The fairy shrimp scored on 4 out of 5 chances.
2. The other body of water I saw was a playa lake in Edwards Creek Valley (new page). Fortunately, the mud was firm enough for me to walk out into the water. To my utter amazement, I was able to get a photograph of a giant fairy shrimp. The only other place I’ve found giant fairy shrimp was “Lost Creek Lake” in the Great Divide Basin of Wyoming.

December 13, 2023

More of the 2023 fairy shrimp extravaganza.

1. After visiting Railroad Valley, I stopped at another prospective area on April 16 on the way back. I’ve added a page for “Little Fish Lake” Valley, which turned out differently than I had expected. That’s not a complaint.
2. I’ve also added a page for East Stone Cabin Valley, which I passed through on the way to and from “Little Fish Lake” Valley.
3. The wet winter and spring convinced me to give the Owyhee Desert another try in late April. Unfortunately, the North Fork Little Humboldt River to the west looked too high for me to risk fording and so did Fourmile Creek to the east. I took my chances and drove around a washed out road and got across the stream that washed it out. I’m not sure that was a good idea but the ponds I found starting on April 26 exceeded my highest hopes even though they barely had any water. I also included some information on the Martin Fire, which burned much of the Nevada portion of the Owyhee in 2018. Based on my experience this year, I rewrote the introduction to the Owyhee Desert to make the dangers of a spring visit more salient.

I read that cestode parasites account for the strong red colors in some fairy shrimp of the genus Artemia (Sanchez and others, 2016; see References) under some circumstances. I have consequently added a couple of sentences to the paragraph referring to hemoglobin on the Biology of Anostraca page. I have also adjusted captions for photographs of “Steamboat Lake” 2nd East Pond and “Piaya Lake” in the Granite Mountains, WY. Mud Springs Pond #1 in the Great Divide Basin, WY, also had red Artemia but I didn’t speculate on the origin of the color in the caption.

December 4, 2023

2023 was an extraordinary year for western Nevada. After the wet winter and spring, the thunderstorms started early, in mid-May. They continued sporadically throughout the summer at intervals that kept some ponds from drying up for weeks or months. “Alkali Lake” (in Alkali Valley) was full in early July and still had high water and no bathtub ring of mineral efflorescence in mid-September. Incidentally, the road to “Alkali Lake” was washed out and several other back-country roads were washed out or damaged, too, this summer. Fairy shrimp can’t keep track because they don’t live for more than a year but this might have been their best year in Nevada in decades. Fairy shrimp continue to astonish me with life stories I can’t imagine. I hope you enjoy the new photos and videos.

1. I’ve updated the “Carson Lake” Playa page with my visit to a dry Macari East Stop Sign Pond on March 17.
2. Later that day, I had better luck at Labou Playa North Pond in Fairview Valley and collected a couple of videos, too.
3. I saw water on Teels Marsh Playa Lake on March 31 for the first time but struggled to get to the water to look for fairy shrimp.
4. I also found a little water on “Winnemucca Lake” Playa (new page) on April 5 but had an even harder time with the mud.
5. You may be surprised to learn that there is a “Lunar Lake” and even more surprised that it is on Earth and in the middle of Nevada. I was surprised to find it full of water on April 13 even though the surrounding terrain looks as dry as the Llano Estacado of New Mexico. I have descriptions and photographs for 2 water bodies in the Southern Pancake Range (new page) and got another video. I first visited Lunar Crater hoping to find water there. It was dry and I haven’t included it on the Southern Pancake Range page.
6. Down the hill to the east in Railroad Valley (new page), almost all the ponds were dry on April 14 and 15. But Raven Roost Reservoir wasn’t. You have to watch the video to believe it.

I will continue to add results of my other 2023 fairy shrimp excursions over the coming weeks.

November 27, 2023

I’ve added 12 web pages on the natural and wrecked environment of “Carson Lake” Playa under The Problem at “Carson Lake and Pasture” in the main menu of the left sidebar. The story is only tangentially related to fairy shrimp but it’s a classic of poorly planned development, indifference to other than economic benefits, collateral environmental damage, and the federal government’s feeble attempt to do something about it with a little gross incompetence or willful negligence by nominal environmental stewards thrown in to spice it up.

March 30, 2023

• Completed minor edits of most pages.
• Made several mostly minor revisions of the “Predators” section on the Biology of Anostraca page but also added bullet points for the numbers of ponds where I observed avocets or phalaropes and the numbers of those ponds which had fairy shrimp in the Antelope Hills, Granite Mountains, and Great Divide Basin, in Wyoming. I also calculated the probabilities that I would have found fairy shrimp if I had seen avocets or phalaropes on a pond visit. Visitors may want to use similar calculations to determine the usefulness of clues they have observed on pond visits.
• Corrected the “Status” for the 06/07/87 visit to Avocet Lake Northeast Pond in the spreadsheets on the Data page from “present” to “dry” and changed the font color for Smith Creek Windmill North Pond to red to symbolize the unusual uncertainty of the location. I now estimate the location could be off by 300 m.
• Revised the Taxonomy and Origin of Anostraca page to include an explanation of the term brine shrimp in a new section entitled “What’s in the Names Fairy Shrimp and Anostraca?”
• Added a link to the legislation designating the “Artemia franciscana, or brine shrimp” as Utah’s state crustacean to the Links page.
• If I added a link relevant to Artemia franciscana in Great Salt Lake, I had better add a link relevant to Artemia monica in Mono Lake. The best I could find was a brochure for California’s Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve but that should get you started.
• The cool, wet weather has continued in Nevada. Temperatures in Reno, Elko, and Tonopah were 88%, 72%, and 90% of normal in February and 83%, 73%, and 84% of normal in March, respectively. Precipitation totals in Reno, Elko, and Tonopah were 104%, 107%, and 47% of normal in February and 250%, 183%, and 128% of normal in March. The snow water equivalent in the snow pack in Wyoming is still above normal for all the river basins but the South Platte. It has improved from my February 22, 2023 update with most medians at 110-135% of normal.

February 25, 2023

The web site is now available for public viewing.

Most of Nevada received snow on February 24-25 so pond depths are looking even better.

February 22, 2023

As of February 22, 2023, the water year is looking favorable for fairy shrimp eggs in Nevada and Wyoming.

According to the National Weather Service (forecast.weather.gov/product_sites.php?site=CRH&product=CF6, with RNO=Reno, EKO=Elko, TPH=Tonopah), precipitation this winter has been above normal for most of Nevada, as shown in the table below.

Several ponds in western Nevada had hatches in January 2022 after the big December storms of 2021. However, that December 2021 dump on Reno was only 170% above normal. December 2022 brought even more precipitation. There’s lots of water but much of it may have remained frozen through January and into February. As shown in the table below, average temperatures for January and February (so far) have been below normal for Elko, Reno, and Tonopah.

At least in northern Nevada, hatching may be delayed compared to normal. Ice doesn’t evaporate quickly at this time of year so March and April could be good for fairy shrimp in the basins and some ponds might persist into May.

SNOTEL reports for Wyoming at wcc.sc.egov.usda.gov indicate the snow water equivalent is modestly above the median for this time of year as shown in the table below.

The Wyoming – NRCS Weekly Snow Report#11 for February 20, 2023 (www.wrds.uwyo.edu/wrds/nrcs/snowrept/snowrept.html) has slightly different numbers for the same data but also has a nice statewide map with the river basins color-coded for snow water equivalent percent of median. This is helpful as it shows that the Great Divide Basin, which has no SNOTEL sites, is surrounded by basins with above-median snow packs. Although precipitation in March and April, or its absence, could make a big difference, fairy shrimp eggs in most of Wyoming have a pretty good chance of hatching this spring.

Updates – top