The most extreme animal on the planet . This small microorganism is called tardigrades, also known as water bears.
They have eight legs, and hands with four to eight claws on each. While strangely cute, these tiny animals are almost indestructible and can even survive in outer space.
Tardigrades were discovered by a German pastor, Johann August Ephraim Goeze, in 1773. Since then they have shown their super powers by surviving extreme conditions by making a transformation. They are also not on any other endangered list and have survived five mass extinctions over the course of around a half a billion years, according to National Geographic.
In many conditions, they survive by going into an almost death-like state called cryptobiosis ( they can maintain this for 30+ years).While in cryptobiosis, tardigrades' metabolic activity gets as low as 0.01 percent of normal levels. They curl into a dehydrated ball, called a tun, by retracting their head and legs. If reintroduced to water, the tardigrade can come back to life in just a few hours. One group of dehydrated tardigrades was reportedly taken from a museum sample of dried moss that was more than 100 years old and brought back to life.
To not make this post too long, here are some features:
1.They produce a protein that protects its DNA from high radiation. In fact, they can live in Fukushima power plants.
2.Tardigrades eat fluid to survive.
3.Tardigrades reproduce through sexual and asexual reproduction, depending on the species. They lay one to 30 eggs at a time.
4.Tardigrades are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. Extremes at which tardigrades can survive include those of: Temperature – tardigrades can survive: A few minutes at 151 °C
5.They can withstand temperature ranges from −272 °C which is near absolute 0.
6.Full of surprises, it turns out that a lot of their DNA – almost one-sixth – is not actually tardigrade in origin. Thus these organisms might owe some of their unparalleled survival skills to a bit of gene borrowing, according to a new study.
7.They swim! Their multiple legs propel water bears forward to reach food.
My speculation is that it came millions of years ago with aliens. Aliens rode them to battle against their foes. Some were left behind on Earth when aliens knew ice age/meteor was coming and escaped. These days tardigrades are still trying to takeover the world by themselves and fulfil their masters wishes.
When I die, I want to become one of them and take over the world..
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