Moss Piglets

Moss Piglets. Water Bears. Tardigrades. "Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew," as Sam Gamgee said in The Two Towers. It wouldn't faze them. For one thing they are small, really small, small as in smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. And that's the really big ones. For another thing they are tough. Real tough.

They live in a slight film of water on moss or lichen. They have eight legs, and all the legs have claws. They can survive in a vacuum; they can survive near absolute zero; they do ok up to 150 degrees; they can survive for up to ten years without water. They can survive radiation a thousand times stronger than other any other critter could handle.

All in all, they are incredible little beasties.

Links:

• The Incredible Water Bear
  
• Tardigrades from the Goldstein Lab at Chapel Hill
  
• Water Bear (video)
  
• Tardigrada Newsletter
  
• Tardigrades.com
  
• TARDIGRADES: BEARS OF THE MOSS (About Tardigrades)
  
• Nature's Great Survivors: Water Bears
• from Stephen Jay Gould's Of Tongue Worms, Velvet Worms, and Water Bears.