Tardigrade moulting

The moulting process. You can see the animal inside old cuticula trying to pierce ith with stylets and finally breaking free. Shot with Zeiss "L" microscope using PZO 20/0.4 and Zeiss 40/0.65 achromatic objectives usinng CCTV camere without the eyepiece and lens. Critical illumination with the mirror a difussing plane and a desk lamp.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• tardigrade
• waterbear
• moulting
• niesporczak
• niesporczaki
• linienie
• wylinka

[LumpyBumpyAcidFish]

where did you find him and what microscope do you use

[threequarterinch]

@LumpyBumpyAcidFish

This one comes from a moss sample from an old building. I've used the standard method: overnight soaking of inverted moss cuschion. The animal was then transferred to the recessed slide (no coverslip). As for the setup: Carl Zeiss L type is an old clinical class microscope with achromatic lenses. For recording vide I'm using a cheap surveliance camera without lens put in place of the body tube. A lot info on tardigrades can be found at tardigrades com page.

[ATY9Productions]

wow!!!! I wonder if they are capable of surviving intense situations like absolute 0 and space when just molted?

[threequarterinch]

@ATY9Productions

They are able to survive such an extreme conditions only in the dry state. In the vegetative state tardigrades are as fragile as other microscopic creatures.

[lockdownProwlYaoi]

those widdle feets!!!!!

[moonshadow112358]

it's so cute at the end