tardigrade

Also known as moss piglets, moss piglet, water bears, water bear, Tardigrada, tardigrades

Tardigrades (), also known as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them ' . In 1776, the Italian biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani named them Tardigrada', which means 'slow walkers'.

OverviewAI-generated

Tardigrada, commonly known as tardigrades, is a phylum of invertebrate micro-animals. The taxon was described by Doyère in 1840 and has an accepted status. It belongs to the parent taxa Panarthropoda, Ecdysozoa, Lobopodia, and Tactopoda. The group has existed for about 531 million years, though it was discovered in 1773. Tardigrades have a length of 0.5 and inhabit marine, brackish, and freshwater environments.

The phylum is referenced in various sources, including the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition, and New International Encyclopedia. Common names for the organism include Beerdiertjes, béar uisce, Tardigrade, and bjørnedyr.

Synthesized by Vinony from 21 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, WoRMS, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Species

tardigrades

Phylum

PhylumTardigrada

Habitatmarine, brackish, freshwater

缓步动物门（学名：Tardigrata）是俗称水熊虫的一类小型动物，主要生活在淡水的沉渣、潮湿土壤以及苔藓植物的水膜中，少数种类生活在海水的潮间带。有記錄的大约有750余种，其中许多种是世界性分布的。在喜马拉雅山脉（海拔6000米以上）或深海（海拔-4000米以下）都可以找到它們的蹤影。直至今日，人们对缓步动物在动物分类中的位置、形态学、生活方式、组织学以及其隐生性的研究兴趣有增无减。緩步動物也是第一種已知可以在太空中生存的動物。

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Research

872 papers

Multi-omics landscape and molecular basis of radiation tolerance in a tardigrade.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2024Li L, Ge Z, Liu S et al.DOI: 10.1126/science.adl0799
The biomedical potential of tardigrade proteins: A review.ReviewBiomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2023Kasianchuk N, Rzymski P, Kaczmarek ŁDOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2022.114063
Advances in bioinformatic approaches to tardigrade phylogeny.ReviewComputational biology and chemistry · 2024Erözden AA, Tavsanli N, Çalışkan MDOI: 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2024.108226
Leveraging tardigrade proteins Dsup and CAHS D for enhanced neural protection in neurosurgery and neuroscience.ReviewNeurosurgical review · 2024Chellapandian H, Jeyachandran SDOI: 10.1007/s10143-024-02901-3
Examples of Extreme Survival: Tardigrade Genomics and Molecular Anhydrobiology.ReviewAnnual review of animal biosciences · 2022Arakawa KDOI: 10.1146/annurev-animal-021419-083711
Tardigrade stowaways: Literature review of Propyxidium tardigradum (Ciliophora, Peritrichia) and its first record in Scotland.ReviewEuropean journal of protistology · 2023Wałach K, Blagden BDOI: 10.1016/j.ejop.2023.125974
Insights into Tardigrade Damage-Suppression Protein, Dsup.ReviewBiomolecules · 2026Woodward TJ, Washington MTDOI: 10.3390/biom16030455
The biology of tardigrade disordered proteins in extreme stress tolerance.ReviewCell communication and signaling : CCS · 2020Hesgrove C, Boothby TCDOI: 10.1186/s12964-020-00670-2

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Encyclopedic overview

24 sections

Contents

Description
Body structure
Nervous system and senses
Locomotion
Feeding and excretion
Reproduction and life cycle
Ecology and life history
Environmental tolerance
Dehydrated 'tun' state
Surviving other stresses
Exposure to space
Damage protection proteins
Taxonomic history
Evolution
Evolutionary history
Genomics
Phylogeny
In culture and society
Early 20th century beginnings
Popularity
From science to popular culture
See also
References
External links

Tardigrades live in diverse regions of Earth's biospheremountaintops, the deep sea, tropical rainforests, and the Antarctic. They are among the most resilient animals known, with individual species able to survive severe conditions, such as exposure to extreme temperatures, extreme pressures (both high and low), air deprivation, radiation, dehydration, and starvation – that would quickly kill most other forms of life. Tardigrades have survived exposure to outer space.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “tardigrade” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.