Great! Another Wednesday! I love Wednesdays!
TARDIGRADES!
I know it shouting that almost makes it seem like some sort of swear or insulting word, but you'll be glad to hear it is none of the sort!
MOSS PIGLETS! WATER BEARS! TARDIGRADES!
- These are all names for the same cute little animal who I am now deeply in love with.
Behold their magnificent body of beauty!
I know - pure sex appeal!
Most of these little critters range from 0.3 to 0.5 millimetres in length - which is pretty small, and those are the adults! fresh little hatchlets can be around 0.05 mm - that's teeny weeny!
but I am stalling for time, what's so amazing about these guys?
As it turns out - these could be the hardiest organisms on earth! here's a list of what they can survive!
Extreme heat! They can survive heating for a few minutes of up to 151 degrees C!
EXTREME EXTREME cold! A few minutes at -272 °C ? No problem! (Oh for all the science nerds out there who didn't instantly realise... that is literally 1 degree off absolute 0)
They can even be kept for DAYS at -200 °C!
EXTREME PRESSURES! ranging from the vacuum of space to 1200x atmospheric pressure!
(yea, pressure is purple - deal with it.)
Some species can even survive 6000 atmospheres - also known as ~6x the pressure found at the depths of the Mariana Trench! (The largest canyon underwater thing)
Don't stop there! These little suckers can even withstand huge amounts of radiation! Not only do they survive the vacuum in space but a few the solar radiation as well! Golly!
Put it this way - they can survive 5000-6200 Gy <-- some unit of radiation-ness - whereas humans will die with 5-10 Gy!
But what does all this mean!?
Could this be the downfall of the baddassery of the honey badger? - I mean , sure their sizes make a real fight impossible, and I would suspect that if it was the honey badger would win - but if the fight was in space (Like all good fights should be) then it is much more likely that the honey badger would explode in the vacuum that get in any good hits but remember - honey badger: just doesn't care...(place your bets)
I digress...
Oh they also have a little anus at the rear end of their 4 piece segmented body, and also have some wicked awesome claws on their little bear feet!
They are found predominantly in water sources such as fresh springs or marine sediments, around in deserts, beaches, and even just soil. However if you want some as a pet get some lichen or moss and let it sit in some freshwater stream somewhere for a while and then you can take it home and have thousands of little Moss Piglets for yourself!
I'm going to have the coolest fish tank soon!
Thanks for stopping by!
No comments:
Post a Comment