Waterbear2

Another Waterbear video

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• waterbear
• tardigrade

[internetaccount122]

These are the cutest microscopic organisms I can think of.

[kdb955]

Collect moss from a place that is usually damp, away from kept lawns where there might be bug spray. soak the moss in rain, spring or distilled water (not tap!) check in a few hours. try again in a week in case there were eggs but no adults. you'll need at least 20x to see them and 50x or more would be best. if you have no luck try moss from a different area. i keep a herd of tardy bears in a soup bowl.

[MikeShawToday]

Well, if you are interested in finding and looking at tardigrades under the microscope, I have an article on this. See my website tardigrade.us

Thanks!

Mike Shaw

[Shydrasnake]

@kdb955 When you soak the moss, do you catch the water that falls off, or do they stay inside the moss?

And how do you put them under your microscope? I'm sorry if these questions might sound a little bit newbish, but I'm new to watching micro-organisms under a microscope.

[puppyfreya8]

so cute

[tall32guy]

Those little legs are so cute. :)

[ninobanaani]

He moonwalks :D

[insan0B]

eurypterids had fins

[TheGreatDolanmite]

Actually, seperately in this case. Tardigrades are arthropods, so they have nothing to do with the common conception of fins to legs evolution. In arthropods, fins were never really evolved, they went pretty much straight to legs from wiggling segmented bodies. Fins appeared in the first soft-skinned organisms. They originally had dart-like bodies, then evolved nubs that helped in motion. These then evolved to fins, and subsequently into legs, feet, and arms.

[tonyrosam]

err... so legs evolved before fins?

[oooorigin]

haha . can't believe. so nice....