Click To View Slideshow» Tardigrades are tiny (and almost cute) animals that have super powers of survival.
The human body kinda sucks. I mean, yes, it's a miracle and an elegant machine and all that stuff. BUT once you alter any of the very specific conditions that allow us to thrive here on Earth, we basically fall apart. It's not just human bodies that are wimps in the grand scheme of things—all animals have similar limitations. Except for one very notable standout. Our planet is home to a teeny tiny animal that puts the rest of us Earth organisms to shame: The water bear.
Tardigrades—a.k.a. "water bears" a.k.a. "moss piglets"—are dainty little eight-legged walking sacks of goo that live literally all over the world (most species are slightly larger than the width of a human hair). While they seem particularly simple in design, they are truly phenomenal creatures. Water bears are—by a long shot—the hardiest creatures in the known universe. They've existed on Earth for millions of years, and will surely continue to exist long after we're gone. In fact, they may even manage to outlive the Earth itself (more on that later).
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These tiny things have survived just about any predicament scientists throw their way—being frozen for decades at a time, boiled in alcohol, crushed under extreme pressures, for example. They've even survived for 10 days in outer space. Seriously, John McClane has nothing on these things.
While nature is full of creatures that have survived one particular extreme after the next, tardigrades can survive...everything. Special adaptations allow them to live without water for long periods of time or get pummeled by extreme doses of radiation. But they have one very specialized trick that comes in handy in all sorts of predicaments—they can come back from the dead! Tardigrades can enter a reversible state of cryptobiosis, in which all their biological functions come to a stop until the environment becomes more favorable. They can remain in this state for decades at a time, if not longer.
Click through our slideshow to learn more water bear superpowers.
(Image Credit: Frank Fox / Wikimedia Commons)
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