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Tiny freshwater shrimp live in the world鈥檚 hottest desert 鈥� and their eggs can lay dormant for years when water is scarce.

In 2006, satellite measurements recorded ground temperatures in the Lut desert reaching 70.7掳C 鈥� a world record. Since then, the desert鈥檚 surface has surpassed 80掳C. The intense heat and relative dearth of knowledge about the region鈥檚 flora and fauna spurred scientists to make a series of expeditions to the Lut to survey聽biodiversity there.

Hossein Rajaei at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany was on one of these excursions in early 2017. As he was cooling off in a temporary pool left behind by a recent, rare deluge, he spotted something unusual.

鈥淚 noticed some small things moving in the water,鈥� he says. He grabbed a net and scooped up a swarm of freshwater crustaceans, each smaller than a pinky nail and with a battery of feathery legs. 鈥淚t was very, very exciting,鈥� says Rajaei.

Martin Schwentner at the Natural History Museum of Vienna in Austria helped him identify the crustaceans as a type of 鈥渇airy shrimp鈥�. These animals live in temporary water sources in the world鈥檚 arid places and survive on algae. Between floods, their eggs can survive in the soil in a form of stasis.

鈥淭hese eggs can stay dormant in the sediment for decades, maybe longer,鈥� says Schwentner.

They found that this was a previously undescribed species and named it Phallocryptus fahimii.

鈥淭here doesn鈥檛 seem to be any permanent water or groundwater in this region of Iran, which begs the question: where have these [fairy shrimp] come from, evolutionarily?鈥� says Michelle Guzik at the University of Adelaide in Australia, who wasn鈥檛 involved in the research.

For Rajaei and Schwentner, the next step is determining if the new crustacean is widespread or if it is endemic to the Lut and thus needs special protection.