So it turns out that the weirdest animal in Lake Baikal is not the freshwater seal.
No, it's the GODDAMN CHIRONOMID MIDGES WHOSE LARVAE LIVE AT OVER 1300 METERS IN DEPTH WHILE THE ADULTS ARE WINGED INSECTS
Shrimps do not metamorphose into things with wings that have to lay eggs tho! Like! HOW DOES THIS WORK WHAT IS GOING ON they are so little and the adults FLY how can the babies be over a KILOMETER deep
There are only two reasons why people would begrudge my butterfly shrimp, one being my not sharing them, and the other being my not sharing the recipe for the passionfruit butter rum marinade.
I imagine insect larvae don't feel much fear but if I was a larva at the bottom of a deep ass hole filled with water and I knew that at some point, I would have to swim to the surface because I will lose my ability to survive under water... that 1300m of water above me would feel hella daunting
I, for one, am relieved that the weirdest thing in that lake is insects that grow up a mile below the surface and then go into the air to fuck. As horrors that may lie in the depths go, this is actually pretty cute and fun.
Honestly the oxygen thing is the least of my issues; my real hangups are how on earth do they lay their eggs and also wtf does their metamorphosis even look like
Definitely wild. That’s such a risky move! There’s so much that could go wrong on the way down. Plus there’s a huge and sudden temperature shift and oxygen shift.
