Interesting Animals: Tardigrade

One of the Phylum Tardigrada, specifically Hypsibius dujardini

This is another case of being more than just one species. Instead, tardigrades (meaning "slow walker") are an entire phylum: Tardigrada. Also known as the water bear, these microscopic invertebrates are the most resilient animals to be found on this planet. By going into a resting stage called cryptobiosis, they can withstand extremes that would easily kill other animals, including us humans. Here's some things that won't kill a water bear:

• temperatures up to 150 degrees Celsius
• absurd amounts of radiation (570,00 roentgens killed only half of them)
• temperatures up to minus 200 Celsius
• extended periods of dessication (being dried out)
• the vacuum of space

Crazy, right? Tardigrades are the only animal to ever survive the process of being sent through a scanning electron microscope. This is a process that involves being placed in a vacuum and then bombarded with electrons for over an hour. Amazingly, the animal pictured above in just such a SEM micrograph probably survived the process. They are also a numerous animal, to be found fairly easily in places like patches of moss.

The genome of these tiny creatures is currently being sequenced.

Image is from Wikimedia Commons under a creative commons license