Celeste LeCompte

Ever since Lake Lahontan dried up thousands of years ago, the Black Rock Desert in Nevada has been a forbidding habitat. The flat terrain is covered with a white alkaline powder, and dust storms are frequent. That has not deterred revelers at the annual Burning Man festival, however. This year they have come bearing waterfleas, tardigrades and other creatures that would have been more at home in the Pleistocene lake. Read more