Species of the Week: The Tardigrade

Screen Shot 2020-07-31 at 2.22.07 PMFor this species of the week, we’re going into the tiny world of micro-animals! Tardigrades, also known as “water bears,” are less than half a millimeter long and live their lives in the thin films of water clinging to mosses and lichens. Claws at the end of each of their eight stumpy legs allow them to move around to feed on plant matter and bacteria. Surprisingly, these tiny creatures are actually some of the toughest in the animal kingdom: when their environment dries up they enter an inactive state called cryptobiosis. In this state, they can survive for decades, and can withstand intense radiation, extreme temperatures, and even the vacuum of space! Murphys Point is home to hundreds of billions of these little animals. Strictly speaking, tardigrades aren’t a species but a group containing over one thousand species. The ones featured in these photos may be from the genus Ramazzottius.

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