So what's a tardigrade, anyway?

Ever noticed the little "posted by" tags at the end of our posts? No? Well, have a look and you'll see that my author name is Tardigrade. This is one of my absolute favorite invertebrates out there. They're tough, tiny, and ubiquitous - and they've even been to outer space!

I first heard about tardigrades (commonly known as water bears) in my Invertebrate Biology class, and honestly? I was kind of enchanted with them. First of all, for being microscopic, they're surprisingly cute and cuddly-looking. They lumber along like a bear, (hence their common name) and they've got tiny claws at the end of each "paw."

Go ahead and coo over these for a minute. You just can't help it.

Tardigrades are everywhere - you can find them in your own backyard if you could see them. They're also incredibly hardy and seem to survive just about any condition. You can freeze them, boil them, deny them food and water for at least a decade.....and they'll still live. If conditions are not favorable, the tardigrade will simply go into a dormant stage, and they can stay there for years and years. When conditions improve, the tardigrade will "come back to life" in a zombie-ish kind of way.

NASA is quite familiar with these tiny creatures, and interested in their sturdiness as well. In fact, they were aboard the STS-134, which was the final flight of the space shuttle Endeavor. Due to their incredible survival abilities, scientists wanted to know how tardigrades fared in space. Not only did they live through that, but upon their return to earth, they laid healthy eggs and carried on normally.

Science Friday has a terrific clip about tardigrades, which you can see here:

Fascinating, aren't they? I have such respect for these little invertebrates.

Have a great weekend, everyone!