TARDIGRADES ARE TOTALLY AWESOME

Tardigrades are totally awesome!  They meet my emotional need for "do-overs".  They can "magically" come back to life if you fail to provide the right temperature, amount of water, or food.  They squish up into something that looks like a little barrel when things suck (add ice cream and I rather do this myself when throwing a pity party).  Then, when you remember them and improve their living conditions, they reanimate.  This is called "cryptobiosis".  I think of it as biological "badassery".  Tardigrades have survived freezing, total dehydration, radiation, and the vacuum of space.  Which goes to show that scientists are those same little kids that pulled the legs off of daddy long-leg spiders.  Scientists are studying how tardigrades do this and there is evidence that they have the ability to shield their DNA with proteins and repair it quickly. 

Now, prepare for a total geek out!  Tardigrades are such a unique group of animals that they have their own PHYLUM (the second largest type of classification used by biologists).  Tardigrades are commonly known as "water bears" because they live in water and look like bears!  They have four pairs of telescoping legs with claws.  The first three pairs of legs are used to move forward and the last pair puts them into reverse.  The don't have teeth like bears, instead they have a stylet that they use to pierce plant cells and suck out the goodie.   

Most tardigrades are dioecious (meaning there are boys and girls).  In aquatic tardigrades the female releases eggs into her old molt (the shed cuticle, rather like an insect's molt).  A male then deposits his sperm into the female's old molt to fertilize the eggs. Not very romantic or sexy is it?  Terrestrial tardigrades mate before the female is finished molting which sounds awkward.  Females can also produce eggs through parthenogenesis, making clones of themselves without the need for a male.   

So, why haven't you seen these amazing creatures?  They are microscopic!