Sea-Monkeys is a marketing term for brine shrimp (Artemia) sold as novelty aquarium pets.

Developed in the United States in 1957[1] by Harold von Braunhut, they are sold as eggs intended to be added to water, and most often come bundled in a kit of three pouches and instructions.

[3] Von Braunhut collaborated with a marine biologist, Anthony D’Agostino, to develop the proper mix of nutrients and chemicals in dry form that could be added to plain tap water to create a suitable habitat for the shrimp to thrive.

[6] Von Braunhut is quoted as stating: "I think I bought something like 3.2 million pages of comic book advertising a year.

As they are easy to breed and care for, brine shrimp are also often used as a model organism in scientific research to study developmental biology, genetics, and toxicology.

[5] They undergo cryptobiosis or anhydrobiosis, a condition of apparent lifelessness which allows them to survive the desiccation of the temporary pools in which they live.

After nine days in space, they were returned to Earth and hatched eight weeks later, apparently unaffected by their travels.