Hello Kossacks!
Odd isn't it that there's always something interesting to learn if you're willing. Tonight we turn an eye toward nature and a tiny creature that has piqued my curiosity. It really is surprising how much life the Earth supports, big and small, and sometimes even life that can go far beyond Mother Gaia's succor. I hope you find these little guys as interesting as I did.
Tardigrades or waterbears are extremophilic animals barely one quarter of one millimeter in length and are quite likely the hardiest animal species on the Earth. And, yes, they are in fact "small, water-dwelling, segmented animals with eight legs."
Wiki
Tardigrades were first described by Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773 (kleiner Wasserbär = little water bear). The name Tardigrada means "slow walker" and was given by Lazzaro Spallanzani in 1777. The name water bear comes from the way they walk, reminiscent of a bear's gait. The biggest adults may reach a body length of 1.5 millimetres (0.059 in), the smallest below 0.1 mm. Freshly hatched larvae may be smaller than 0.05 mm.
Some 1,150 species of tardigrades have been described. [3] [4] Tardigrades occur over the entire world, from the high Himalayas [5] (above 6,000 metres (20,000 ft)), to the deep sea (below 4,000 metres (13,000 ft)) and from the polar regions to the equator.Wiki
Hank from the SciShow (currently showing nightly on the
Overnight News Digest) describes the little creatures in his own inimitable style (well perhaps not his own :)
NatGeo describes work at the University of North Carolina with the littlest astronauts and, as they say, Earth's ultimate survivors.
Recent DNA and RNA sequencing data indicate that tardigrades are the sister group to the arthropods and Onychophora.[31] These groups have been traditionally thought of as close relatives of the annelids,[32] but newer schemes consider them Ecdysozoa, together with the roundworms (Nematoda) and several smaller phyla. The Ecdysozoa-concept resolves the problem of the nematode-like pharynx as well as some data from 18S-rRNA and HOX (homeobox) gene data, which indicate a relation to roundworms.
Wiki
Here is a video half way between Hank phrenetic and funny and NatGeo's straight ahead reporting...
You may have thought that honey badger don't care, well, now you know that the tardigrade really doesn't care.
Thanks for taking a peek. Hope to hear from you in the comments below.
