Bob the Tardigrade / Water Bear

First off, sorry about the glare, I'll try to darken the room to avoid the problem next time.

This is Bob the Tardigrade. Tardigrades are one of my favorite microscopic animals. They've colonized the entire planet, and can undergo cryptobiosis, a really cool "hibernation". The form they take while hibernating is called tun. When in tun form, they can survive at one degree above 0 Kelvin, the coldest temperate in the universe, or really high temperatures. They've been exposed to space radiation and survived. They call survive all this, and are still as fit as ever.

I found them in my gutter on a rainy day. They've been living in a recycled water bottle in my garage since this November, and are still going strong, without me having to add any food or take care of them.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• tardigrade
• water bear
• microscope
• microscopy
• life
• freshwater