When thinking of the toughest animal in the world many people tend to think of rhinos, wild boars, or bears. But people often forget that size isn’t what makes animals tough. According to Google Dictionary the definition of tough is “strong enough to withstand adverse conditions or rough or careless handling; able to endure hardship or pain; physically robust.” The animal that fits that definition perfectly is the tardigrade.
Picture taken from howitworksdaily.com
The tardigrade is an animal that is only about .5mm-1.5mm in length. They are a phylum of small invertebrates that were discovered in 1773 by Johann August Ephrain Goeze, a German pastor. According to Smithsonian.com most tardigrades live “out their days on a moist piece of moss or in the sediment at the bottom of a lake and feeding on bacteria or plant life” (Smithsonian). However this is not the case for all tardigrades. Some tardigrades live in much more extreme environments. Tardigrades have been found living in freezing conditions under layers of ice. However, they are also found living in the boiling springs of Japan (BBC). They can survive in temperatures as low as -328 degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 304 degrees Fahrenheit. They can live without water or oxygen for decades, and withstand x-ray radiation levels that are 1000 times the dose that is lethal for humans. Tardigrades can also survive the low pressure of a vacuum and pressures that are 6 times higher than the deepest part of the ocean (SERC). They can also survive a number of other extreme conditions that other animals cannot. With their ability to survive in such hostile conditions, it is almost unsurprising that tardigrades have even survived a journey through space. According to BBC, “In 2007, thousands of tardigrades were attached to a satellite and blasted into space.” Many of those tardigrades survived the trip, and some females even laid eggs that hatched and survived in space.
The way that they survive all these crazy conditions is through a process called cryptobiosis. “Cryptobiosis is defined as a state in which metabolic activities come to a reversible standstill” (SERC). This means that tardigrades can go into a death like state where they do not consume any energy. There are several types of cryptobiosis for different extreme conditions: if there is a lack of water, they undergo anhydrobiosis; if there is an extremely low temperature, they undergo cryobiosis; if there is an increased solute concentration, they undergo osmobiosis; and if there is a lack of oxygen they undergo anoxybiosis (SERC). The most important part is that they can come out of those states. For example, a tardigrade can undergo anhydrobiosis and become dehydrated, then they can be revived by being put back into water.
Now it is obvious that the tardigrade is the definition of tough because of its extreme ability to fight through adverse situations despite its tiny size.
Works Cited
Bordenstein, Sarah. “Tardigrades.” Tardigrade. SERC, 23 June 2014. Web. 03 Dec. 2015.
Fox-Skelly, Jasmin. “Tardigrades Return from the Dead.” BBC. BBC, 13 Mar. 2015. Web. 03 Dec. 2015.
MacDonald, Fiona. “The Tardigrade Genome Has Been Sequenced, and It Has the Most Foreign DNA of Any Animal.” ScienceAlert. N.p., 25 Nov. 2015. Web. 03 Dec. 2015.
Stromberg, Joseph. “How Does the Tiny Waterbear Survive in Outer Space?” Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian, 11 Sept. 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2015.
THIS IS SO COOL! I never knew such a thing existed. Whenever I saw the picture on the video, I thought it was an animal that was a few feet long, but the picture made it look microscopic. I was pretty confused at first. Your blog perfectly explained what a Tardigrade is, and how it functions. It is almost unfathomable that an animal can withstand conditions like it does. Normally, animals typically live in the same conditions even if they are in different parts of the world. To think that this animal can live in freezing temperatures, and boiling water temperatures blows my mind. It is also hard to believe that they survived the journey into space. I feel like we should be able to research more about this “Cryptobiosis” and use it to our advantage. There has to be something that makes this happen, and I think that if we could figure it out, that would be key. We could apply these principles to other organisms possibly, and there could be new ways of life. According to this article the tardigrade holds the record for the most foreign DNA, meaning their DNA comes from all different types of species. Thank you for sharing this topic that I knew nothing about!
It is very amazing to think that something so small, pretty much invisible, and can be almost indestructible. I really liked your blog and learned a lot. It is pretty cool that they have been able to survive extreme cold and the radiation of outer space. Also the part where they can come back from the dead through anoxybiosis or osmobiosis is fascinating. It made me look for more info.