The animal I chose for my blog is called the Tardigrade, or more commonly known as Water Bears. They are microorganisms that can survive in the most extreme environments. There are over 1,000 species of Tardigrades and some can survive temperatures as low as -273 C (-459 F), also known as absolute zero, and temperatures as high as 151 C (304 F). It can also be exposed to 1,000 times more radiation than any other animal and can survive the vacuum of space.
Most Tardigrades live in fresh water, semiaquatic, and terrestrial environments. You can find water bears in almost every type of habitat around the world, from moss in a tropical forest to the freezing waters of the Arctic Ocean.They are all, however, considered aquatic to some extent because they must have a film of water surrounding their body to permit gas exchange and prohibit uncontrolled desiccation.
Many are limnoterrestrial, living in wet habitats such as moss or leaf litter. One way in which tardigrades have adapted to various types of environments, has been to reversibly suspend their metabolism. This state is known as cryptobiosis and is a truly deathlike state. Metabolism lowers to 0.01% of normal or is entirely undetectable and the water content of the body decreases to less than 1%. It allows Tardigrades it live in almost any environment and can be further explained in the video. =)
