tardigrade

[prettygoodword]

tardigrade - n., any of a phylum (Tardigrada) of slow-moving, microscopic invertebrates with four body segments and eight stout legs, living in water or damp moss. adj., of or belonging to the Tardigrada; slow-moving, slow in action.


Also called water bears. Related, somewhat distantly, to arthropods. The largest modern species (they date back to the Cambrian era) grows to 1.5mm. As the name suggests (from Latin tardigradus, slow-moving, from tardus, slow + -gradus, moving, going) they are not speed demons -- however, they are extremophiles, able to withstand near boiling and near absolute zero, being dried out for a decade, and high radiation. And they look funky.

---L.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

They look AWESOME.

They look like underwater outer space bears.

I love this world.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

the water bears join some lichens and bacteria as the only species known to be able to cope, unprotected, with both vacuum and solar radiation in space.

Wow!

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

"Wow" is about it, ya.

---L.