Tardigrades Aka Water Bears Or Moss Piglets

Tardigrades aka Water Bears, Moss Piglets Before T-Rex appeared and the Dodo bird disappeared, Leading to modern-day scientific knowledge increasement, Creatures of infinitesimal size called ‘Tardigrades’ endure, Were and are living and thriving, just about anywhere on earth. From mountain heights to frigid, snow-capped pole blizzards, In the depths of oceans to the hostile heat of the world deserts; And from the rain forests along the equatorial circular parallels, To outer space experiments of vacuum and radiation exposures. These tough animals plug through the planet’s extremities, For hundreds of millions of years of life’s changing destinies. The only prerequisite they require is a thin coating of water, To surround their bodies, keeping them hydrated with moisture. In earth’s timeline, five major mass extinctions occurred, Graptolites, trilobites, synapsids, conodonts, and dinosaurs, All doomed in global catastrophic events, from which they ceased to exist; Whereas, an organism viewed under the microscope is visible. Translucent, with eight legs attached to a segmented plump body, With talons on their feet, propelling them forward in their journey. Equipped with eyes of simple vision on a scrunched up head, they meander, Searching, with telescoping mouths equipped with teeth like razors. They survive by eating nematodes, rotifers, and parasitics, 1, 2 Or sucking juices from algae, lichen, and moss, or turning cannibalistic. With no heart or lungs tardigrades breathe by diffusion in locomotion, And produce a protein that protects their DNA from radiation mutation. ‘Moss piglets’ belong to the phylum family of the animal world, That is to say, they, unlike humans, have no spinal cords. And reproduce sexually or asexually depending on the species,3 By laying eggs that can develop with or without fertilization. Tardigrades were discovered by the German zoologist Goeze in 1773, 4 Who called them ‘little water bears’, because they resembled miniature bears. (Modern studies suggest that the tardigrades genome is more closely related to worms). A few years later, the Italian biologist Spallanzani named them ‘tardigrada’ (slow steppers). 5 An interesting characteristic observed by Spallanzani is that tardigrada Can survive extreme environmental conditions and catastrophes, By going through a transformation called cryptobiosis,6 A process first described by the microbiologist, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek7 (A death-like phenomenon of hibernation and survival strategy). In a crisis, tardigrades will retract their heads and legs, and curl up Into a dehydrated ball, referred to as a ‘tun’, and remain dormant, Until reintroduced to water, that will revive them back to life again. Thus, by using this technique, tardigrades have survived millennia of years While other life forms greater in stature have become extinct. *** Notes: 1) nematodes: small worms. 2) rotifers: tiny plankton. 3) dioecious: (of a plant or invertebrate animal) having the male and female reproductive organs in separate individuals. 4) Johnathan August Ephraim Goeze (1731-1793): J.A.E. Goeze was a German pastor and zoologist credited for the discovery of tardigrades in 1773. He called them Kleiner Wasserbär (little water bear). 5) Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799): Lazzaro Spallanzani was an Italian Catholic priest, biologist, and physiologist who in 1776 named the tardigrades, tardigrada, (slow steppers). 6) Cryptobiosis (biology):Cryptobiosis or anabiosis is a metabolic state of life entered by an organism in response to adverse environmental conditions such as desiccation, freezing, and oxygen deficiency. In the cryptobiotic state, all measurable metabolic processes stop, preventing reproduction, development, and repair. When environmental conditions return to being hospitable, the organism will return to its metabolic state of life as it was prior to the cryptobiosis. (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia) 7 Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723): Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch microbiologist and microscopist known as “the Father of Microbiology.” He was the first person to described the process of cryptobiosis in 1702.