Up to 12 mm. Lives on the banks of saltwater streams.

The skeleton shrimp has two long and flexible antennae on its head. It uses the antennae to sense its surroundings and perform various actions. Behind the antennae, on the underside of its body, there is a cluster of small organs mainly used for catching, manipulating and swallowing food.

The body of the skeleton shrimp is comprised of short, tube-like segments. Stable and flexible joints between the segments allow it to straighten out its body or curl up into a ball.

It has several pairs of long, flexible legs, which it uses to crawl along the sea floor.

For most of us, muddy areas are fairly boring — not exactly prime real estate. For the skeleton shrimp, mud is the whole world. The shrimp burrows into wet and salty soil when its texture is just right — not too rough and not too fine. This happens when the soil is mostly composed of clay, sand and alluvium.

In ideal conditions, skeleton shrimp populations can reach incredibly high density. A productive muddy area can be home to 10,000–20,000 shrimp per square meter (about the size of a beach towel).

The climate crisis has made the living conditions favorable for the skeleton shrimp, ushering a golden age for its subterranean riverbed mud cities.

Amit Mitelman, Daniel Yahav, Chen Kadosh