Tardigrade (Water Bear)

[Loopyman105]

The little feet on it don't seem to be very effective in helping it move around. I wonder why it hasn't evolved to form cilia or flagella instead?

[dfrybarger]

It's because it's on a glass slide. It's natural environment is usually moss. It has little claws on its feet to help it climb among the moss.

[Loopyman105]

@dfrybarger alright that makes more sense. i dont know why i never thought of that..

[vton19631]

makes tardigrade soup

boils for hour

still alive

THIS ISN'T WORKING

[cyburking]

Tardigrades are so unnecessarily awesome -,-

[SMFortissimo]

It's so cute! It's doing a doggy paddle. It's saying "Swim, swim, I must swim! Why isn't this working?!?" lol

[71197cml]

Does anything prey on waterbears?

[dfrybarger]

Good question. I googled it and came up with nothing. My guess is that because they live in wet mosses and lichens for the most part, they have very few enemies.

[GrayArcAirsoft]

@dfrybarger

Some tardigrades eat other tradigrades...



[shipmaster4000]

@71197cml My guess is the fact they can live through the vacume of space.... They can probly survive a digestivesystem....

[buggerwho12]

I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy.

[bambierose17]

It'sbeing attacked!!! How horrible! I'll save you little creepy ..thing!

[MewMewPower44]

Are those other things around it water bears too? If not, what are they?

[dfrybarger]

Those are rotifers. They are also in the animal kingdom as are tardigrades. Rotifers are very common and many are amazingly beautiful.

[CavalliAna]

damn ecdysozoa! just messed up with the phylums! ^^

[kpopgiiirl]

Let's name it PHIL!!!!

[LaurenisinWonderland]

I saw one of these through our microscope during science class. He pooped :)

[VagueApparitions]

Why is this so cute?

[tall32guy]

She is really trying to get around! LOL Poor thing. :)

[BLACKIESBOY]

0:47

Is something eating him? D:

[ArchDukeFranzObama]

@BLACKIESBOY Looks like a rotifer or possibly another water bear (?). I donno if it is eating him.

[arrow564]

How many times is that image magnified?

[dfrybarger]

About 60 times

[SillyLitleGirl]

Is it wrong that I find these things so adorable? Then again I have a pet banana slug named Philip...

[KawaiiKemonomimi]

@TwoCows23 LOL! Still surprised me... Makes you wonder if other planets with life already have these tardigrades.

[KawaiiKemonomimi]

@TwoCows23 so can bread mold spores. LOL!

[HumanGrinder]

this is so beautiful...just became my favorite animal of all times! thanks for the upload did you recorded this yourself?

[nextgenvids]

cant believe they can live in the vaccum of space up to 10 days and reproduce and live 1 degree about absolute zero

[509734]

they're also common in spring water, with some 25000 inhabitants per litre

[DonSelwashington]

Does this one have a name? How old is he? I've heard they can live a 100 years

[pokefriend123]

Why does it look like a Caterpillar?

[BLACKIESBOY]

@pokefriend123

They're related to nematodes, which is a kind of worm

[KawaiiKemonomimi]

Did you see these guys on Animal Planet's Most Extreme? Apparently they're even more resiliant than roaches!

[decakeesh]

the size is 1/4 millimeter. imagine its too tiny to see with our naked eye.... we cant notice it easily

[ozgunh]

this is freakin awesome. The amount and depth of where you can find living things is mind blowing.

[zzzIdividedbyzerozzz]

The most invincible creature on Earth

[meandmynaps]

They are too cute!!

[beanerforlife04]

water bears for everybody!!!!!!!!

[MrMplookout]

does this animal do harm to human body if it were inside?

[ZoraMiracle]

@MrMplookout hmm good question

[dfrybarger]

I don't think so. They are usually found in moss so if you eat some moss, you may find out. I'd be more concerned about the danger of eating amoebas and ciliates that are found in moss.

[vrachwal]

Oh god i'm SOOOO obsessed with them. I saw this awesome shirt with a picture of a water bear and it said "INVINCIBLE". I was so mad their wasnt one to fit me. And the worst part is I'll probably never actually see a water bear. I NEED A PET TARDIGRADE!

[ShinjinoTribute]

What's the size of waterbear? o.o

[dfrybarger]

They are small, 0.2-0.5 mm in length, about the size of a dot made with a "fine" mechanical pencil. A big tardigrade can be seen with the naked eye.

[culturaleyes]

it's like some sort of...hot tub..TIME MACHINE!

[clod8]

They survived in dried up moss from a museum that was 120 years old.

[leviticusme]

i wonder how many of these cute little things ive eaten by accident. lol

[Anonymous41362]

i want one for a pet

[sgtwhp]

It would probably be really easy to take care of, eh?

[PlanB765]

it looks so fuzzy.....i want one!!

[AhlamSuxCock]

They look good. Do they taste like sea food?

[ecordy75]

What are their names? I'd call the big one Bruce. Unless it's a female. Then I'd call her Lulu.

So cute. So cuddly. So adorable.

So infinitely better qualified to run this country than 99.99% of all of its politicians ever.

[wertman264]

my friend says that these actually live in space. now i know they CAN live in space but he insists that they DO we're both 14 so he should know better can someone please help me prove him wrong? :{)

[Nexuxs]

I think u said they CAN`T there, but whatever.

Water bears can almost cease living, and because of this they can stay on space UP to 10 minutes, and get out alive, but they cant live on it, nothing can live on it.

[DivinusAssassin]

I'm afraid your friend is correct, as described in an article at NewScientist. Recent studies have shown their resilience to exposure in space.

[jprithvi]

They can live in space for a short time and no they don't live in space. No Hydrocarbon based creature can survive the effects of solar radiation or background radiation of deep space. That level of radiation will destroy DNA not just mutate it.

[wertman264]

whats hydro carbon based

[jprithvi]

lol...its the predominant elemental make up o fall life. Hydrogen and Carbon can combine for form chains and all sorts of combinations of molecules enables DNA to store vast amounts of information. I though 14 year olds would know what a hydrocarbons were lol

[sgtwhp]

Hi. Don't know who you are talking to but I thought I would just interject, since an interjection on youtube isn't really an interjection at all.

I don't know about other schools but I wasn't taught a very thorough explanation of hydrocarbon chains till I was 16. It might just be my school though.

[JusticeVonBrandt]

They survived space for atleast 10 days, who knows if they could survive for longer.

[ojideagu]

Your friend is an idiot. Nobody has even found bacteria anywhere in space yet.

They don't LIVE in space. NASA did a test and proved they can survive in the middle of open space for 10 days, with no oxygen or water and exposed to the sun. They shut down their body to survive.

[FondleMyNuts]

they are quite indestructable. they can survive harsh radiation, gamma rays from outer space, freezing, drying etc...

they can become inert ie pretty much die, then be brought back to life.

and yes, they have been proven to survive in space from experiments and there have been questions as to whether they do come from outer space, but we'll never know for sure.

[ArkThatcher]

Hope this one makes you happy Deirest, Silly Tardigrade

[LexiHarrington]

I love you. Thanks for sending me the water bear =) best cheer up ever!

[Tardigrade44]

beauty.

[zakkmiester]

aaaww it's such a cute little polyextremophile!

[somehominid]

was it being eaten?

[Rapportus5]

I like how one of the other organisms starts tossing the water bears salad toward the end

[quicheee]

He's going no where fast. c:

[Soccer4Lifexo]

where do they live?

[QuirkyTycoon]

I love the water bear, but the other little jiggling protists in that slide were irking me out. xDD

Does anybody know what the organisms were that kept poking at the bear at around 0:38?

Were those smaller water bears or some type of bacteria...? I just noticed the flagellum (if that's what those were), so I assumed.

[dfrybarger]

Those are rotifers. They are also in the animal kingdom as are tardigrades. Rotifers are very common and many are amazingly beautiful.

[QuirkyTycoon]

Ahh, thank you.  (:

[plarkmoby]

Who wants radioactive spider bites, I'll take radioactive Tardigrade bites any day of the week.

Epic super powers.

[charmixy]

aww soo cute i love water bears! i want one! im so gonna search every moss plant there is.

wat r those slugish organisms surrounding it?

[dfrybarger]

Those other organisms swimming near it and almost the same size are rotifers. They are also really cool creatures. Many of them have what look like spinning wheels on their heads.

[TokyoCrusader]

The can go for a decade with no water.

They're the only creatures capable of surviving the vacuum of space.

They can stop their metabolism.

They're basically the epic animal.

[1988russell]

they can live in suspended animation for more than 120 years.

[colin749]

cute

[soggyorigami]

Im hungry for Gummi Bears now

[mattb521]

Life's easy when you're a little water bear.

[shadowtiger18]

For something microscopic, it's rather cute

[Wolftear3]

It's soooooooo cute

[pasrachilli]

Heh. Don't kid yourself. It's hideous.

[Sekto]

I don't know, there are certainly uglier things out there, but yeah, it's pretty gnarly.

[pasrachilli]

The only thing uglier than that thing is a naked mole rat.

[Magnes666]

are You blind? this is SO cute!

[pasrachilli]

Only color blind. And it is still the ugliest thing next to a naked mole rat.

[levilisko]

have you looked to human beings latelly??? :P

[jigglesnap]

Are those things trying to eat it? It looks stuck with nothing to climb on.

[pasrachilli]

Poor little ugly thing...

[alanipotatolover]

awsome im doing my science project on these things

[colleen3217]

Dude! Me too! Ours is just about classification and such. Lucky me that I knew about these guys.

[deaneden79]

Me too! Well, I did...last semester.  I did a presentation on how we are attempting to mimick it's use of the nonreducing trehalose sugars in it's crptobiosis state and apply it medication manufacturing. They're so neat!

[alanipotatolover]

wow i didnt even go that deep!=]

[deaneden79]

Yea, they are completely fascinating and as a bio student, I am in love with this organism! Sometimes I pull a Mary Catherine Gallagher and pretend to makeout with one..."Water Bear, you want a goodbye what?! You're so bad! Well, ok...one for the road."

That was a joke.

[gunsandbullhorns]

it doesn't look very happy

[tall32guy]

@gunsandbullhorns He looks like he is stuck. That is probably why he is not happy. :)