TARDIGRADES: EARTH’S TOUGHEST ANIMAL

Nature's Great Survivors: Water Bears
By Max Miroff and Avi Abrams, Dark Roasted Blend, 11 February 2013.

These tiny creatures can withstand more hardship than any other animal on the planet, and you can probably find some in your backyard. They are truly nature's greatest survivors.

Tardigrades (known as water bears or moss piglets) are some of the most interesting animals in the world, simply because they can survive so well in the most extreme conditions.

Images credit: Eye Of Science/SPL/Solent, Water Bears

Careful! It's got claws!

Images credit: Willow Gabriel, Goldstein Lab

These small, segmented animals were discovered by Johann August Ephraim Goeze, an aquatic zoologist, in 1773. Over 900 species of water bears have been found everywhere around the world - from the Himalayan mountains (at elevations of over 6000 meters) to deep ocean areas (4000 meters below sea level). They are most often discovered on mosses, lichens, and various types of sediments. An easy way to observe them is to soak a piece of moss in spring water.

Tardigrade in moss water. Image credit: Jasper Nance

Freeze them, boil them, dry them, expose them to open space and radiation - and after 200 years they'll still be alive!

The amazing thing about these tiny, 1 mm creatures is just how resilient they are to about everything. You can put them in space, in hot sea vents, and freeze them - no matter what you do, they'll survive.

Image source

You see, Tardigrades can survive in:

1. Extreme cold (at -272 degrees Celsius for a couple of minutes, or at -200 degrees Celsius for days on end).

2. Extreme heat (being heated to 181 degrees Celsius for a couple of minutes).

3. Extreme radiation (easily surviving 5,700 grays of radiation. A gray is about as much radiation as 5,000 chest x-rays. 10-20 grays can easily kill a human and most animals.)

4. Extreme dehydration (A tardigrade can survive for a decade with no water).

5. In a vacuum - Yes, a water bear can survive in space!

These tiny organisms can be found everywhere - in fact, there are probably hundreds of these creatures just a few meters from where you are standing. They aren't as publicized as they should be, but these creatures are truly fascinating. It's amazing that these miniscule beings can survive for so long in the circumstances when others will certainly die out.

Images via Living On Earth

So here's to Tardigrades, nature's greatest survivors!

They are also kinda cute...(on the left below is the early Eutardigrade illustration by Andrew Pritchard):

...and they look great in art:

Images credit: Norwood Matt, Justin Paszul

Additional Sources:

1. The Nonist

2. Bio-Pro

3. Das Bärtierchen-Journal

4. Living On Earth

5. Nemaplex

6. Tardigrade Reference Centre, The Academy of Natural science.

[Source: Dark Roasted Blend. Edited.]

See also: Meet the toughest animal on the planet: The water bear that can survive being frozen or boiled, float around in space and live for 200 years (shame it isn't much to look at)