Tardigrades Research Paper

These tiny animals dwelling in the moist areas of our planet looks like a funny little thing. But as we laugh at its weird and peculiar body structure and shape, it is cheating death. These funny tiny animals are called tardigrades, water bears or moss piglets. At first glance these creatures may not make a big impression considering their small stature and unimpressive frame. Soon we learn that although these creatures are funny to look at they can survive in any place in the world you can think of because of cryptobiosis. It is mainly dependent on moisture to survive. They can reproduce asexually and often time consume their habitat making them pretty self-reliable.

Tardigrades meaning slow walker, are animals that grow as small as 0.1 millimeter and as big as 1 millimeter. These invertebrates have four segments with for pairs of clawed legs. Tardigrades can be bilaterally segmented with a tube within a tube body plan giving it a digestive system that runs from mouth to anus. These are cephalized animals having a brain inside their head and 2 eyespots at the top of their head. The eyespots are not for seeing or going through photosynthesis but are important in identifying cool or sunny areas to avoid desiccation. All this is covered by a cuticle covering made of chitin produced by the animal’s own epidermal layer (Wright, J. 2014). Even with all the fancy features tardigrades exhibit they still lack a circulatory and respiratory system.

Moss piglets have to be one of the toughest organism on earth considering they can survive just about anything. But, they thrive in water or on land, usually on bryophytes, which we learned are the likes of mosses, liverworts and hornworts. They also exist on lichens, which we know is a mutual re...

... middle of paper ...

...rganisms as well. Water bears suck fluids from the insides of bryophytes, algal, rotifers nematodes bacteria and fungi. Using the stylets to latch onto their meal and the muscular pharynx aid in the flow of fluid now the (Glime, 2013, p. 8). The carnivorous species of the phylum tardigrada will go as far as consuming smaller tardigrades.

Tardigrades are one of the most fascinating organisms I have ever come across and their survival traits are a testament to what evolution can do. The small stature of these organisms has made it hard for anyone to learn much about their history besides what we can observe through microscopes today. As we petri dish these organisms for our own entertainment, one day we will be gone not being able to survive what mother nature or man himself may throw our way and the tardigrades and roaches will still be there thriving and surviving.