Ananya Dhiman and Ashish Thapliyal

Do you know of an animal that can survive for long durations without water,and can survive the harshest of conditions? An organism gifted with the ability to adapt to various types of environments is the tardigrade. It was first described in the year 1773 by JAE Goeze. Discovered almost 230 years ago, till now, 900 species of this animal have been found living on different lands, freshwater lakes and seas.

Tardigrades are also called ‘Water Bears’ as they look like miniature bears living in water and ‘Moss Piglets’ as on land, they are mostly found in various types of mosses.

Under the microscope, tardigrades look like small gummy bears, having plumpy segmented bodies. They have four pairs of legs each having four to eight claws. The limbs are used for locomotion and grabbing lichens and mosses. Apart from fresh water and sea water, scientists have found them in the hot-springs, on top of the higher mountain ranges, and even metres deep inside layers of solid ice…read more on NOPR