Those amazing alien Tardigrades

[Brian G Turner]

It's been discovered that they use a unique chemical trick to survive dessication:
Tardigrades turn into glass to survive complete dehydration

In the meantime, more on those amazing alien Tardigrades:
Tardigrade - Wikipedia

Quote:
Tardigrades are the most resilient animal known:

- they can survive extreme conditions that would be rapidly fatal to nearly all other known life forms.
- they can withstand temperature ranges from 1 K (−458 °F; −272 °C) (close to absolute zero) to about 420 K (300 °F; 150 °C),
- pressures about six times greater than those found in the deepest ocean trenches,
- ionizing radiation at doses hundreds of times higher than the lethal dose for a human,
- and the vacuum of outer space.
- They can go without food or water for more than 30 years,
- and dry out to the point where they are 3% or less water, only to rehydrate, forage, and reproduce.

 

[mosaix]

Absolutely amazing things.

One thing makes me curious. I'd always assumed (probably incorrectly) that evolution required a particular environment for an entity to adapt to it and acquire new characteristics. Just how did the Tardigrade acquire adaptions to extreme temperature, extreme pressure, vacuum, and radiation?

 

[Brian G Turner]

Just how did the Tardigrade acquire adaptions to extreme temperature, extreme pressure, vacuum, and radiation?

Exactly - it's as if they're already evolved to survive space travel. Hence why I referred to them as "alien" in the thread title.

 

[Nick B]

They also have something like 17% of the dna of other organisms. We all have a small % dna crossover but tardigrades take that to an extreme, I think this is one of the accepted theories of how they survive such a range of extreme conditions.
Awesome little creatures.

 

[Danny McG]

I'd never heard of them until I had to sit with a 2 year old at Christmas watching the Octonauts on DVD

"The Octonauts" The Octonauts and the Water Bears (TV Episode 2015) - IMDb

 

[Foxbat]

I've recently been doing a bit of research on the effects of ionizing radiation on cockroaches (for a story I've abandoned for now) and the interesting thing is the reason why they are resistant. It's all to do with the rate at which a cell reproduces. In more complex animals, cells reproduce at a higher rate(meaning their DNA is much more vulnerable for most of the time). In less complex creatures, the rate is much lower. This means that radiation won't affect them as much because, for much of the time, the lower reproduction rate of the cockroach cell means it spends less time in its most vulnerable state and is therefore more resistant.

It makes me wonder how low the cell reproduction rate for a tardigrade is compared to a cockroach.

 

[J Riff]

You can grow some by grabbing some moss and adding water. Got to be one of the oldest, most succesful lifeforms in the Universe.

 

[Danny McG]

You can grow some by grabbing some moss and adding water. Got to be one of the oldest, most succesful lifeforms in the Universe.

Like SeaMonkeys then?
Always thought that the adverts for those looked cool.
One walking the tightrope, one riding a bicycle and one sitting reading a newspaper.
Somewhat underwhelmed when I finally got a set and there was just these tiny dots wriggling through the water.

 

[hitmouse]

Absolutely amazing things.

One thing makes me curious. I'd always assumed (probably incorrectly) that evolution required a particular environment for an entity to adapt to it and acquire new characteristics.

Not necessarily. Certain evolutionary developments may simply pre-adapt a species to novel environmental challenges. That is not to take away anything from the fact that tardigrades are remarkable and also pretty cool.

 

[J Riff]

The core of the Galaxy is going to radioactive like a cosmic toaster. That's where this kind of lifeform developed, and then they hitched a ride out to the sticks here on some space spores or summat.
Sea Monkeys are no less than Brine Shrimp. Highend tropical fish food, but they don't last long. If you have some, put them in a glass jar, in the fridge, where the cool temp and no light extends their life cycle. I used to use a little handpump to oxygenate them a bit each day, and they lasted weeks instead of days.

 

[Tommy Brauer]

Nature is absolutely astonishing when it comes to survival. To think that a species can survive in space, almost indefinitely boggles my mind, but even the concept of hibernation baffles me as well.. I get it, the body slows down, nearly shuts down, and while its not necessarily a complete shut down, you could literally compare it to sleep, i guarantee you there's species out there that do not sleep at all... and look at us confused like "they, sleep? did you call it? they stop moving? to conserve energy??" all the while their 12 limbs shift and move about to continue their blood flow because if they stopped themselves they would pass out and die.. like a great white shark in water who stops moving forward and ceases his oxygen flow...

 

[Brian G Turner]

A piece this week on New Scientist covering a study that looked at how a couple of different species of tardigrade deal with dehydration:

Tardigrade genomes help explain how they survive without water

Love the photo that accompanies: