Tardigrades by Teresa

We watched a video about Tardigrades in class and something about them fascinated me. Those little things that could make such a huge difference and can help us in a lot of ways. So I decided to make my blog post about them and I will tell you a little something about Tardigrades now.

Tardigrades are also known as water bears or moss piglets. They are microscopic animals with 8 legs and they are about one millimeter long. The biggest ones grow up to one and a half but the average size is 0.5 millimeter. With their look they remind us of a teddy bear.

The first Tardigrade was discovered in 1773. Now there are more than 1000 different types. The name Tardigrade comes from latin which basically means slow-walker.

You can find them in the ocean, in fresh water, in wet habitats like moss or roof gutters, on the Himalaya or in the Antarctica. The only way they can move is when they are in water. Only then they can move, eat or reproduce. But they can easily survive a dry period or extreme temperatures. Changes of the ocean salinity, high pressure, radiation or oxygen deficiency is easily bearable for them. The little animals are good prepared for sudden changes in their environment. If there are sudden dry periods or an unexpected cold snap they are able to build some kind of resistance. They can produce cysts and another skin and instead of peeling their skin they increase the sugar in their blood. Some kinds can build so-called tuns: they roll themselves like a ball and pull in their legs so they almost dry out. Their metabolism is reduced and they are in a dead-like contrition, they can stay like that for up to 30 years without any damage. That condition allows them to survive extreme environmental conditions. And they are the first animals that are able to survive in space.

My question is “Could Tardigrades be the answer to life in space?”

I think it is really interesting how those little animals can be so tough. They don’t look like that at all at first but if you learn more about them it is really impressing. The three best thing is that they can survive through all those environmental conditions, they can survive in space and they can pretend to be dead and survive without doing anything for up to 30 years.