Water Bear don’t care
By Calvin, Science and Environment Editor
Tardigrades, often referred to water bears or moss piglets, are known as one of the world’s most indestructible species. Scientists discovered that it will be the only creature that will survive until the sun dies.
Tardigrades were first discovered by a German pastor, Johann August Ephraim Goeze, in 1773 when he named them Tardigrada which translates to “slow stepper” A biologist named Lazzaro Spallanzani further discovered that water bears can survive extreme conditions by making a transformation. Tardigrades are able to survive up to an approximate 30 years without food or water and can withstand extreme temperatures, radiation, boiling liquids, tremendous amounts of pressure of up to six times the pressure of the deepest part of the ocean and even the vacuum of space without any protection.
This is because in many conditions, they survive by metamorphosing into a death-like state called cryptobiosis where the tardigrade would curl into a dehydrated ball, a tun, by closing in their head and legs. If reintroduced back into water which is where they generally live, the tardigrade can revive from death in just a few hours. When the water they live in lacks oxygen, they will be themselves bigger allowing their metabolic rate to reduce. Doing so allows their muscles to absorb a substantial amount of oxygen and water so that they can survive. In colder temperatures, they may form into a special tun that prevents the growth of crystals.
Tardigrades uses their multiple legs to help propel themselves forward to reach food. The water bear’s mouth can reveal sharp teeth through an outward movement to help grab onto food. Tardigrades mainly eat fluid to stay alive. They feed off the juices from lichen, algae and moss. Some species are carnivores and even cannibals meaning that they will prey on others of their own kind. Tardigrades are as close to indestructible as it gets on Earth, but it could be possible that there may be other resilient species alike this impressive organism elsewhere in the universe.