Well its my lads 7th birthday today, and we have got him a 'Triop World'... Basically you get a plastic moulded 'tank' which has fun kids stuff to do like grow a grass bank along one side, a glowing lava volcano... and a packet of dried eggs, which you add to the tank of water and in 24 hours they are supposed to hatch... Will let you know how they get on, but isnt it unusual? Apparently, the 'triops' lay their eggs when you begin gradually emptying the water bit by bit. After a couple of months they die (naturally) and you empty the water, and dry the substrate and the eggs... and when you rehydrate them, they hatch... I think it has something to do with their natural habitat where rivers run dry and the eggs are 'dormant'. It also says that the eggs will still hatch after being dry for up to 15 years... how AMAZING!!! My first thought was that surely, the triop has more in common with the plant kingdom than any other creature?