Historical Note on Artemia (Crustacea: Anostraca)

Alireza Asem^1,2

1) Protectors of Urmia Lake National Park Society (NGO), Urmia, IRAN
2) West Bio-Processor Inc., Urmia, IRAN

Summary:
Mankind had known Artemia from many years ago because there are several locations and habitats of Artemia all over the world. Although all scientific manuscripts attribute the first report of Artemia to Schlosser in 1755 from Limington, England; but really the first scientific record belong to unknown Iranian author in 982 ("The regions of the world"; a Persian geography, 982. unknown author, translated by Viladimir Minorsky in 1937; Oxford University press). Iranian geographer had introduced Artemia from Urmia Lake as a "worm" that can live in Urmia Lake saline water. It is interesting that "brine worm" is one of popular names of Artemia; but Schlosser had described Artemia as "unknown Insect" (un Insecte peu connu). Therefore the historical record of existence of Artemia dates back to 982; more than one thousand years ago from Urmia Lake, Iran by the unknown geographer and Schlosser was the first person to give drawings of Artemia.

Its Persian text:

Its translation in English:

"And second lake is Kabuzan Lake (Kabudan Lake or Urmia Lake) from the Urmia. Its length is 50 Parasangs (an ancient unit of length) and its wide is 30 Parasangs. There is a village in this lake, called Kabuzan (Kabuzan = Kabudan; is an island in the Urmia Lake) and this lake is called with this village. There are cities around that and there is no animal because its water is salty expect a worm."