Rescuing Helpless Shrimp From Isopod Parasite! (Part 1 of 56) 😱 #animals #nature #education

This Is NOT A Worm‼️😱 This strange creature was living inside this mud shrimp’s gill chamber. But despite what it looks like, this is not a worm. It is actually a crustacean called a bopyrid isopod. That means this parasite is much more closely related to animals like pill bugs, shrimp and crabs than it is to any worm. You can still see evidence of that in its segmented body and these tiny jointed appendages along its sides. This species is called Orthione griffenis. The large swollen parasite you are looking at is the female, and she has become highly modified for living inside the shrimp. She remains hidden beneath its protective shell, takes nutrients from its blood-like fluid called hemolymph and uses the shrimp’s body as a place to survive and reproduce. Once the parasite has been carefully removed, I check the shrimp for injuries and return it to its burrow. This is episode one of my new investigation into the invasive parasite affecting mud shrimp along the Pacific Coast. Over the next 56 removals, we are going to learn how it lives, document where we find it and figure out how this platform can provide information that is genuinely useful to scientists. Follow along because this is much bigger than one parasite removal. #animals #nature #shorts