Favoritos de forever1057

“This specimen from Joshua Tree National Park is recognized as a unique hybrid between the valley oak (Quercus lobata) and the turbinella oak (Quercus turbinella). While the turbinella oak can be found locally, the valley oak grows only in the San Joaquin Valley area, 150 miles from Joshua Tree.” (https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/jotr/Discovering-the-Desert/Diverse-Landscapes/JOTR-16705-Hybrid-Oak.html)

Now that is a mom! Absolutely covered in babies and barely able to see (especially when one crawled over her eyes). She moved very slowly and deliberately, like a lumbering tortoise.
S. maxima due to size- she was at least 2.5" and likely too large to be mccooki. Both species frequent this region.

These were roughly 2cm long. I know next to nothing about fairy shrimp in general. I explored several ponds in the area and this was the only one with these brilliant blue, fork-tailed fairy shrimp. Sorry the photo sucks, I had really only gotten videos because their undulating swimming movements are so mesmerizing. Had to screenshot a video to get this image and it was the best I could do. This one appeared to have an egg-sac of some sort, as did several others I saw.