Hi #AmazingNature Community!
Always wishing everyone a good day. Let's remember that the sun rises for @everyone!ππ
Once again, I bring you content that I consider to be of quality, this takes several hours of reading, comprehension and writing.π‘π
But more than that, this is one more publication so that together we can appreciate and contemplate how wonderful our nature is! I prefer the marine and aquatic environment, that is my specialtyπ¬ππ¦π¦π’π³π I hope you enjoy!π¬ππ¦π¦π’π³ππ€
Without a doubt, today I bring a super super super interesting and fascinating topic! The famous "water bears"π¬, few really know these living beings but the information that exists about these invertebrates is incredible: some say that these beings are "immortal" and we even find incredible illustrations about them on the web ...
(The following post is actually informative news, its origin is not scientific)
Photo by Getty Images
What is a tardigrade?
Tardigrades are microscopic aquatic animals found almost everywhere on Earth.
There are also terrestrial species living in the interior humidity of mosses, lichens, litter and soil; Other species are found in fresh or salt water. Today we are going to focus exclusively on "water bears", a name derived from their resemblance to eight-legged pandas. Some call them mossy piglets and have also been compared to pygmy rhinos and armadillos (Miller, 1997).
Photo by American Scientist
Looking at them, most people find tardigrades to be really cute animals.π
Animation by BrightsBlog
Ilustration by "Octonautas" cartoon seriesπ
They are creatures less than a millimeter long, and it has been proven that tardigrades can survive when subjected to temperatures of up to 150 Β° C and frozen to almost absolute zero! (BBC News, 2019). That is fantastic! But, even more fantastic is that they are thought to be living on the Moon right now! How is it possible?
Photo by Getty Images
The "water bears" survived in space
The story goes that these special creatures were traveling on an Israeli space probe that crashed on the Moon last April.
The co-founder of the organization that put them there thinks they are very likely still alive. The water bears had been dehydrated to be placed in suspended animation, a technique in which a cold saline solution is introduced into the body that reduces the temperature and causes fewer resources to be consumed (BBC News, 2019).
"We believe the chances of survival for tardigrades ... are extremely high," said Nova Spivack, head of the Arch Mission Foundation.
The Arch Mission Foundation produced an archive of more than 30 million pages with the history of humanity visible under a microscope and with samples of human DNA in DVD form.
The "lunar library" as this archive is known, was aboard the Israeli robot Beresheet that crashed in April. There were dehydrated tardigrades on it, some amber and some taped to tape.
Photo by BBC News
Amazing Features
The most well-known characteristic of tardigrades is their incredible ability to survive in spectacularly extreme conditions, be it hot or cold. A few years ago, the Discovery Animal Planet network show aired one of its famous countdowns about the toughest creatures on Earth. Tardigrades were crowned the "most extreme" survivors (as they say on the TV show), outperforming penguins in the Antarctic cold, camels in the dry furnace of the desert, tubeworms in the abyss and even the legendarily persistent cockroach (Kristensen et al., 2011).
Animation by NatGeoTV
Water bears, which also go by the endearing nickname moss suckers, can come back to life decades after being dehydrated.
Scientists have discovered that tardigrades have what seems almost a superpower.
When dry, they retract their head and eight legs, crumple into a "little ball," and enter a deep state of suspended animation that looks a lot like death.
They expel almost all of the water from their body and their metabolism slows to 0.01% of the normal rate.
The positive is that, if they are put back in water, even decades later, they can come back to life! (BBC News, 2019).
Photo by American Scientist
Related art on web
Remember we said that there were incredible illustrations on the internet about tardigrades? This is a good example: Tardigrades on a macro scale invading our world! What creativity!π²
Ilustration by Sofia Olea
Ilustration by Brian K.Vaughan
"Tardigrades are a good reference point to observe the resistance of life on Earth in its amplitude. When scientists study threats on a large scale, they usually focus on the survival of our species, but in the grand scheme of things, humans are quite fragile" - Sofia Olea
Hope you enjoyed!ππ¬
Are these the ones they found living on the hull of a spacecraft? Did we find microbe live outside of earth yet?
Hi @newworldfreedom most likely you mean tardigrades, now, IT IS NOT A PROVEN FACT that they are alive in space right now, it is a very possible theory. Greetings!
Looking at the data of the Hubble scope i find it 99,9999999% probable myself.
On this planet and in these times, we don't know really which facts are proven or not. Information is not always shared.
That's completely true! @newworldfreedom
But really cool microbe :D
Wow, fascinating creatures. I havenΒ΄t heard of them before. Thanks for educating us :)
Thanks @phortun always trying my best to make good content
Amazing creatures indeed my friend.
A great and very well detailed post here.
Congrats on the good work.
Blessings!
Btw. My wife is a lecturer at SATS (South African Theological Seminary)
Hi @papilloncharity woooow sorry, what's a lecturer? Like a teacher?
Blessings to you!
She's here in Hive? Greetings!
Hi @juanbg,
A lecturer is a bit higher than a facilitator that does the teaching and the lecturer is the person that marks the degree exams.
My wife also proof reads the masters and doctorates summaries.
No, she is not in Hive my friend.
Cheers and blessings!
Wow! What a blessing to hear that @papilloncharity! Very soon I will finish my degree in theology, later on I would like to study a master's degree or why not? A doctorate in theology.
Please, if you have time, could you leave me some link or information about these studies? Thank you very much, greetings and blessings to your wife!
Yes indeed, you should continue your studies Juan, I also have the degree, but I am too old to continue, so I rather concentrate on my preaching.
But you still have the world in front of you and a doctorate would be an ideal target.
SATS has many international students and the link is:
https://www.sats.edu.za
You will find all of the information at this link and if you have any questions, feel welcome to contact me.
Blessings!
Thanks a lot @papilloncharity! God bless you, get a hugππ¬
Blessings also to you and your hug is reciprocated my friend π
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Hey @discovery-it thanks for the support!!!! ππ¬
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Thanks bro!
I remember that when we heard about them in astro classes we were all so super amazed that there is a species that is found everywhere and also survives nearly everywhere ^^ These little fellows are soooo super amazing .. I am glad that you made a nice post about them as they are little miracles of nature indeed ! .. I can not withstand to forward this to OCD and hope that many Hiveans out there get it to read and have the chance to know about them ^^
Hey @adalger thanks! Tardigrades are very interested creatures, I saw OCD already voted!
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STOPDo not miss the last post from @hivebuzz:
amazing creatures!!