Habitat: fresh, brackish, and salt waters, mosses, lichens, plant litter, soil, grasses, and algae worldwide
Evolved in: Late Cretaceous
(source)
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Acutuncus antarcticus is the most abundant species of tardigrade in Antarctica, and one of the few animals native to Antarctica year round. They live on cyanobacteria and green algae and can live in their normal, active state for up to 161 days, though on average only live for 69. However, when the water that they need to survive in freezes over, A. antarcticus will enter a state of cryptobiosis, decreasing activity to a nearly undetectable level, ceasing to age until they are rehydrated. One outstanding case in 2015 demonstrated a frozen moss sample from 1983 that contained A. antarcticus tardigrades. From this sample, 2 adult tardigrades and 1 egg survived, despite being placed in -20 degrees Celsius for 30.5 years. This is the longest record of survival for tardigrades.
The entire genome of the tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris has been sequenced. Hypsibius exemplaris has a compact genome and a generation time of about two weeks. It can be cultured indefinitely and cryopreserved.
Macrobiotus hufelandi, identified by German researcher Carl August Sigismund Schultze in 1834, is recognized as the first taxonomically named tardigrade species.
Macrobiotus shonaicus engage in a mating ritual which involves the male touching the female’s cloaca with his mouth several times until the female tardigrade stops moving. Both male and female then immediately molt before reproducing, developing mature oocytes to do so. Many other tardigrade species can reproduce parthenogenetically, but this species does not appear to be able to.
Richtersius coronifer is one of two species of tardigrade that have been shown to survive and continue reproducing after exposure to outer space, specifically in the thermosphere at 258–281 km above sea level with ionizing solar and galactic cosmic radiation for 10 days. However, unlike Milnesium tardigradum, R. coronifer did not survive under these conditions plus UV exposure. Despite their popularization as survivors who can withstand any extreme environment, it is usually humans who put tardigrades through these extremes. They don’t necessarily enjoy them, they can merely survive them, and only some of them can bounce back.
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Habitat: fresh and salt waters, mosses, lichens, and plant litter in the Northern hemisphere
Evolved in: Middle Cretaceous
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Bergtrollus dzimbowski is the only species is the genus Bergtrollus. The name Bergtrollus is named after the mythical Scandinavian "mountain troll".
Tardigrades of the genus Milnesium are famous for being one of the most desiccation and radiation-resistant invertebrates on Earth, due to their unique ability to transform into a "tun" state and utilize intrinsically disordered proteins when experiencing extreme environments. In 2007, individuals of two tardigrade species, Richtersius coronifer and Milnesium tardigradum (image 1), were subject to the radiation, near-vacuum, and near-absolute zero conditions of outer space as part of the European Space Agency's Biopan-6 experiment. Three specimens of Milnesium tardigradum survived, while the Richtersius coronifer did not. M. tardigradum can survive high amount of environmental stress by initiating cryptobiosis. During this state, the internal organic clock of M. tardigradum halts, thus, the tardigrade does not even age during this time.
Milnesium tardigradum was voted the winner of The Guardian's "2025 invertebrate of the year" competition, from a shortlist of ten. The article describing the conclusion of the contest stated that the species had "endured all five previous planetary extinction events" (which is not necessarily true, M. tardigradum is a recent species, and the genus Milnesium is from the Cretaceous and thus endured only one planetary extinction event. The phylum Tardigrada as a whole has stem ancestors in the Cambrian, so perhaps they are attributing the successes of the entire phylum to this one species!)
Milnesium tardigradum is one of the largest species of tardigrades, at up to 1.4Â mm long.
Female Milnesiids lay their eggs within their exuvium (discarded molted exoskeleton).
Name: Tardigrades, waterbears or moss piglets (photo: Hypsibius dujardini)
Phylum: Tardigrada
Class: Eutardigrada
Risk of Extinction: No in danger.
More Info: Tardigrades are notable for being one of the most complex of all known polyextremophiles. An extremophile is an organism that can thrive in a physically or geochemically extreme condition that would be detrimental to most life on Earth. For example, tardigrades can withstand temperatures from just above absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water, pressures about 6 times stronger than pressures found in the deepest ocean trenches, ionizing radiation at doses hundreds of times higher than the lethal dose for a person, and the vacuum of outer space. They can go without food or water for more than 10 years, drying out to the point where they are 3% or less water, only to rehydrate, forage, and reproduce.
(photo taken from http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/tardigrada/interesting/)
