Water fleas
What are they called?
Collectively these microcrustaceans are known as the Cladocera.
How old is this group? There is evidence that cladocerans evolved from a clam shrimp ancestor over 200 MYA.
What do they eat? Most eat algae, bacteria, debris, and microorganisms. However four families are comprised of predators of zooplankton. Anchistropus is a parasite of Hydra.
Where do they live? Lakes, slow moving streams, ponds, puddles, estuaries, oceans
What is their life-cycle? Most commonly, females hatch from eggs in the spring; produce females asexually throughout the summer; in the fall they start producing males, they mate and lay resting eggs. This breeding system is termed cyclic parthenogenesis.
Who Eats Them? Fish, birds, insect larvae, and other crustaceans.
Why Water Fleas?
Water fleas are some of the most important subjects for freshwater toxicology and for understanding the environmental effects of human activities on lakes and wetlands. Filter-feeding cladocerans are among a few known animals that can clear pollution-caused algal blooms in lakes. Moreover, water fleas are a critical part of freshwater ecosystems as most freshwater fish species and many bird species depend on water fleas as a significant source of food. Scientists are often unable to identify accurately the species under study because of poor literature, a shortage of living experts, frequent hybridization, and extreme variation in body shapes. We seek to remedy this situation using morphology, DNA analysis, and bioinformatics to produce modern taxonomic studies of water fleas and train new experts.