Скачать или смотреть Tardigrades - water bears, cryptobiosis, space organism, radiation protection, Dsup protein

Tardigrades, often called water bears or moss piglets, are near-microscopic animals with long, plump bodies and scrunched-up heads. They have eight legs, and hands with four to eight claws on each. While strangely cute, these tiny animals are almost indestructible and can even survive in outer space.

Tardigrade is a phylum, a high-level scientific category of animal. (Humans belong in the Chordate phylum — animals with spinal cords.) There are over 1,000 known species within Tardigrade, according to Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).


Characteristics of the Tardigrada:

Bilaterally symmetrical.

Body has more than two cell layers, tissues and organs.

Body cavity is partially a coelom.

Most possesses a through straight gut with an anus.

Body monomeric.

Body possesses 4 pairs of unjointed claw bearing legs.

Body possesses a fixed number of cells (eutelic).

Has no circulatory or respiratory system.

Primitive excretory organs in some species.

Reproduction normally sexual and gonochoristic, but can be parthenogenetic.

Feed on a plants or small animals.

All live in aquatic or damp places, normally associated with vegetation.