3/15/2006: Water Bears, the world's toughest animal

Oh man, what if this thing was comin' straight for ya! Too bad you wouldn't notice it - the biggest one would be a millimeter and a half in size, and you'd probably find it on a lichen or moss.

AxlRosen suggests this item. The "water bear" is more properly called a "tartigrade", and it was blogged about last week by Notes from the Technology Underground. I never heard of it before, but this thing is amazing. As blogger Bill Gurstelle writes:

Now here's the thing I really like about tartigrades. They are apparently the World's Toughest Animal. You can shoot them into space, take them to the deepest ocean depths and let them go, deprive them of air, water, and food for years and they don't care. Send them into the core of nuclear reactor. They'll be fine.

Then he posts the Wikipedia link for the little dudes, where there are more amazing facts. They can hang out at 150 degrees C, or close to absolute zero. They found a living one that had been hibernating for 120 years.

Enh. I'm not impressed. Name me one tartigrade that's won the Nobel prize.

umm...these things live on lichen or moss, right? not on people, right? Right?!

Undertoad wrote:

Enh. I'm not impressed. Name me one tartigrade that's won the Nobel prize.

Not yet. These things will outlive the cockroaches, and when they do, the speciesist Nobel committee will no longer be an issue.

Bet he can't survive a lecture by my English teacher...

I spent 20 minutes looking at a bunch of sites. The color pictures show them bright red, but they can be orange or green, they have one gonad, they live everywhere and they'll withstand 5700 grays of x-ray radiation. (Five grays would be fatal to a human).
But nobody says what they eat?:confused:

Damn, you think you could get one of these guys at a local pet shop? I'd pay a fine price for a little colony of tartigrades.

They're free! And they're everywhere.:D

don't they look all rubbery and squishy like they're filled with stretch armstrong gunk?

Thank you for making them just that little bit more disturbing. Good job.

how come they get to have 7 fingers and we only get 5. :eyebrow:

We were given dual gonads as compensation. That, and we aren't quite as fucking ugly as that thing.

Can you grow these any bigger?

Whatever we do, let's not piss them off.

I'm pretty sure that they feed off of people named Bri.....ooooh wait....

:)

Someone must have tried really hard to kill them to

shoot them into space, take them to the deepest ocean depths and let them go, deprive them of air, water, and food for years

How is it that this is defined as an "animal" instead of some other term that more aptly implies "teeny little critter"? Don't we have terms like "insect" and "bug" and others that more fit that size bracket?

& If the distinction isn't one of size but of component parts & makeup, then is this also remarkable in that it is much closer in bodily function to the things that come to mind when you say "animal" -- mammals, reptiles, birds and such -- than with insects?

its a beastybob!

jojo wrote:

how come they get to have 7 fingers and we only get 5. :eyebrow:

Its in the Bible. God only knew how to count to seven. Later, when he created man, God learned the advantage of five - such as a five day work week.

tw wrote:

Its in the Bible. God only knew how to count to seven. Later, when he created man, God learned the advantage of five - such as a five day work week.

In the Bible, Book of Armaments, (and, I quote) "five is right out!"

I thought God liked the number three. No more, no less.

Skunks wrote:

How is it that this is defined as an "animal" instead of some other term that more aptly implies "teeny little critter"? Don't we have terms like "insect" and "bug" and others that more fit that size bracket?

Insects are animals.

xoxoxoBruce wrote:

The color pictures show them bright red, but they can be orange or green

those are the tarted-up tartigrades:D

xoxoxoBruce wrote:

But nobody says what they eat?:confused:

From http://152.2.81.1/parkproject/harp/Courses/Tartigrade_page.html Tartigrades feed upon detritus and fresh plant material. Some are predatory on smaller invertebrates.

Aren't animals pretty much any living thing that isn't a plant?

http://www.sidwell.edu/us/science/vlb5/Labs/Classification_Lab/Eukarya/Animalia/ Kingdom Animalia Kingdom Animalia is one of four kingdoms in the Domain Eukarya. It is distinct from the other three kingdoms, Plantae, Fungi, and Protista, in several ways. Animalia are multicellular, while most Protista (excepting the multicellular algae, which are plant-like) are unicellular. Heterotrophism separates the animals and fungi from plants, and the lack of cell walls in animal cells makes them distinct from fungi. Animals also possess several other unique features. These include interior digestion of food, possession of a digestive tract where hydrolytic enzymes are secreted and digestion takes place, and special cell junctions in their tissues.

What a shame these things weren't commonly known in the 1950s-what a cool creature for one of those cheesy sci-fi movies where radiation makes something gigantic!

AureliusVin wrote:

Damn, you think you could get one of these guys at a local pet shop? I'd pay a fine price for a little colony of tartigrades.

My ten year old learned about these last year and would LOVE a bunch of these

Brianna wrote:

I thought God liked the number three. No more, no less.

He be three. A number reserved only for God ... and human equivalents - Olympic metal winners.

Yes I remember my indoctrination well - including all answers to why bears have seven digits. We only need consult the bible and God's chosen presidents.

It looks to me like the top left extremity has eight "fingers". Could be the arthritis medicine.

what about kryptonite?

capnhowdy wrote:

It looks to me like the top left extremity has eight "fingers". Could be the arthritis medicine.

even worse! i bet cap'n hook has claw envy.;)

"They are apparently the World's Toughest Animal. You can shoot them into space, take them to the deepest ocean depths and let them go, deprive them of air, water, and food for years and they don't care. Send them into the core of nuclear reactor. They'll be fine."

But have they tried throwing them into a z machine? ooh, maybe they're the ones running the machine...:worried:

Elspode wrote:

We aren't quite as fucking ugly as that thing.

Speak for yourself.

I've seen some fugly people, and my ex-bosses wife looks something like that.

I for one welcome our tartigrade overlords...

Wait. This isn't Slashdot.

Hey Uryoces, welcome back.:D
Tartigrade Overlords?

To me, these things look like a cross between a bear, a pig, a piece of ginger, and Freddy Kreuger.

ok, if you were scared of them before, i went looking for videos.http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artnov01/mmbearvideo2.html
how can something so tough be SEETHROUGH????

johningerslev wrote:

ok, if you were scared of them before, i went looking for videos.http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artnov01/mmbearvideo2.html
how can something so tough be SEETHROUGH????

Wow, that's very cool. 1.06 meg video download.:thumb:

They think that video makes them look like living sweets, I knew Brit food was bad but really. :worried:

You know with all the things they DID try to kill these things did they think of squishing them with a pencil eraser. I bet that does em in.

johningerslev wrote:

ok, if you were scared of them before, i went looking for videos.http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artnov01/mmbearvideo2.html
how can something so tough be SEETHROUGH????

that was so VERY COOL! they are cute li'l guys when you see the way they move

xoxoxoBruce wrote:

Hey Uryoces, welcome back.:D
Tartigrade Overlords?

dang it - i tried doing that with the z machine but i suck at photoshop:lol:
just don't let them start reciting poetry...

jojo wrote:

dang it - i tried doing that with the z machine but i suck at photoshop:lol:
just don't let them start reciting poetry...

Well, that would make them 'smarter than the average bear'.

Hey BooBoo!

jojo wrote:

don't they look all rubbery and squishy like they're filled with stretch armstrong gunk?

:lol: It does look like armstrong gunk!


So people actually get paid to do those experiments to that poor thing you need a microscope to see??

Not fair all the fun stuff requires a degree of doctor- ish
porportions. :p

jinx wrote:

http://www.sidwell.edu/us/science/vlb5/Labs/Classification_Lab/Eukarya/Animalia/ Kingdom Animalia Kingdom Animalia is one of four kingdoms in the Domain Eukarya. It is distinct from the other three kingdoms, Plantae, Fungi, and Protista, in several ways. Animalia are multicellular, while most Protista (excepting the multicellular algae, which are plant-like) are unicellular. Heterotrophism separates the animals and fungi from plants, and the lack of cell walls in animal cells makes them distinct from fungi. Animals also possess several other unique features. These include interior digestion of food, possession of a digestive tract where hydrolytic enzymes are secreted and digestion takes place, and special cell junctions in their tissues.

jinx is so hot when she gets all science teacher-y on us.

But seriously, thanks for the clarification, I somehow forgot all that.

Even MORE SERIOUSLY: Who would win in a cage match? Tartigrade or BSE Prion?

I see a pay per view opportunity for the cellar...

jojo wrote:

But have they tried throwing them into a z machine? ooh, maybe they're the ones running the machine...:worried:

If they could go through Z machine(2,000,000,000 K), they might survive in the sun.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060313.html

Now you're just trying to scare us.

Welcome to the Cellar, aliasyzy. :D

Maybe they are alien embryos from far far universe, waiting for a chance to parasitize and enslave us. :cool:
Fox Mulder: (Nod, Nod) The truth is out there.

The Cellar is fantastic.
Nice to meet you, Bruce.:lol:

maybe theyre a little ahead of humans in evolution. considering that just about anything kills us