There is one animal that lives among us. An animal that can survive super cold temperature, boiling temperature, a nuclear bomb, it can even survive in outer space.
An animal that quite possibly lives in your backyard but you don't know about it.
Tardigrades also known as moss piglets or water bears are strange looking animals. They have long plump bodies, scrunched up heads and 8 limbs with claws.
There are over 1,000 known species of tardigrades and they are found almost everywhere on our planet.
But what makes them really special is that they are like the superheroes of the animal world because they are near immortal.
As a species, they survived 5 mass extinctions over the course of around half of a billion years.
Tardigrades can take heat very well. They have been exposed to temperatures as high as 150 degrees celsius, far above the boiling point of the water and still survived.
They don't easily freeze to death too. Over various experiments, they have been stored at -200 degrees celsius for 20 months and still survived.
Scientists also put them through high level of x-rays, gamma rays and other types of radiations and found that some tardigrades can withstand up to 6,000 grays.
It only take 10 grays to kill human.
Not only tardigrades are almost immortal, they can also be revived after they die.
The reason why tardigrades can survive 5 mass extinctions and continue living in backyard because it can mimic death. And has the power of getting revived after years or even decades.
Their superpower is called CRYPTOBIOSIS and they can activate it at will once it dies from extreme heat, all they need is some water like rain and they are good to go.
And once it dies from extreme cold, all they need is some warmth and they are good to go too.
Thank you for reading!
nice post...the bot agrees too!