Directory of Tardigrada Resources

Home > Science > Biology > Flora and Fauna > Animalia > Tardigrada

Tardigrades, also called water bears, are a phylum of microscopic, aquatic animals with segmented bodies. These creatures are related to arthropods and onychophorans. They are known for their adaptation to extreme environments using a low metabolic state called cryptobiosis.

Resources in This Category

• 'Water Bears' are First Animal to Survive Vacuum of Space

  http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14690
  News article reporting that tardigrades exposed to the harsh combination of low pressure and intense radiation found in space, have survived and reproduced.

• 10 Intrepid Animal Astronauts

  http://io9.gizmodo.com/5865757/10-intrepid-animal-astronauts
  Ten animals who played an indispensable role in paving the inter-planetary way to space.

• 3D-printed tardigrades - Boing Boing

  http://boingboing.net/2015/07/09/3d-printed-tardigrades.html
  Image of a 3D-printed water bear and a link to a site to print your own.

• 9 Real Things In Nature That Look So Unreal, You Have To Look Twice

  http://www.storypick.com/real-things-in-nature/
  Story about surprising aspects of nature, with photographs.

• A Science Prodigy in an Unlikely Place

  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/09Rintel.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=e08a545196e373ba&ex=1362718800&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
  A New York Times article about a student who, as an eighth grader, studied whether power plants affect local tardigrade diversity

• A Tardigrade from Scotland

  http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artaug00/ellstard.html
  A tardigrade from Scotland, Isohypsibius annulatus, described in Microscopy UK's online magazine.

• Absurd Creature of the Week: The Incredible Critter That's Tough Enough to Survive in Space

  http://www.wired.com/2014/03/absurd-creature-week-water-bear/
  Wired Science column about strange organisms features water bears.

• And Water Bear it Is!

  http://www.science20.com/dna_and_diversity/and_water_bear_it_is
  Entry in the DNA and Diversity blog about Hypsibius dujardini, a species of tardigrade whose genome is being sequenced.

• Baby Squid, Bugs and Microbes Launched Into Space

  http://www.wired.com/2011/05/squid-microbes-endeavour/
  Wired Science story about tardigrades and other organisms on the Space Shuttle Endeavor's final mission.

• Barbie Now Has a Giant Tardigrade Steed

  http://motherboard.vice.com/read/barbie-now-has-a-giant-tardigrade-steed
  News of a 3D-printable tardigrade

• Behold the Mighty, Microscopic Water Bear

  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99800021
  A short video from NPR's Science Friday about tardigrade research.

• Can Life Survive Deep Space? Let’s Send It There!

  http://www.wired.com/2009/10/can-life-survive-deep-space-lets-send-it-there/
  Wired Science story about an experiment sending organisms to a Martian moon, and then back to Earth.

• Charismatic microfauna: A scientist dishes on the wild kingdom beneath our feet

  http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-17-a-scientist-dishes-on-the-wild-kingdom-beneath-our-feet
  An interview with a conservation scientist discussing the strange organisms she finds in soil, from an online environmental news magazine.

• College research team discovers new species of tardigrade

  http://www.pressherald.com/2015/09/29/unity-college-research-team-discovers-new-species-of-microscopic-animal/
  A news article reporting the finding of a previously undiscovered species of tardigrade.

• Creative Collaborations: Globe-Trotting for Tardigrades

  http://college.unc.edu/2011/02/21/creative-collaborations-globe-trotting-for-tardigrades/
  A story about a pair of American college students traveling to China to search for tardigrades for a Google Lunar X Prize team.

• Critters found in Antarctic ice shows how tenacious life is - Salon.com

  http://www.salon.com/2015/03/27/critters_found_in_antarctic_ice_shows_how_tenacious_life_is/
  An AP news story about critters and DNA found in Antarctic ice and in a sub-ice lake.

• Deep-Freeze

  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,816378,00.html
  A Time Magazine article that mentions Abbe Spallanzani, who discovered tardigrades in 1776, approaching the French philosopher Voltaire to ask about the soul of organisms that can be rehydrated and brought back to life.

• Do microorganisms have biogeography?

  http://biogeography.blogspot.com/2008/08/do-microorganisms-have-biogeography.html
  Blog post explaining a theory that microorganisms, including many tardigrades, disperse around the world.

• Eight legged treats - Making gummy water bears

  http://clairemcwhite.github.io/tardigrades/
  How a few scientists made gummy water bears using a silicone candy mold custom made from their 3D-printed plastic mold.

• ET enjoys the simple things in life

  http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1512298/et-enjoys-the-simple-things-in-life/
  A scientist considers the possibility of habitable worlds in the universe, the chances of them harbouring life, what aliens, if they exist, might be like, and how we might one day communicate with them across space and time.

• Five Creatures That Prove Life Could Exist On Other Planets (Or In Space)

  http://io9.gizmodo.com/5536752/five-creatures-that-prove-life-could-exist-on-other-planets-or-in-space
  A blog post about animals and microbes that can survive extremes.

• Hardy Li'l Critters will be First Tested in Open Space

  http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/26/hardy-lil-critters-w.html
  News entry in the Boing Boing blog about tardigrades in space.

• How Does the Tiny Waterbear Survive in Outer Space?

  http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2012/09/how-does-the-tiny-waterbear-survive-in-outer-space/
  Special adaptations allow the tiny animal known as the tardigrade to dry up and survive in suspended animation for years.

• How to Find and Care for a Pet Tardigrade (Water Bear)

  http://www.wikihow.com/Find-and-Care-for-a-Pet-Tardigrade-(-Water-Bear-)
  Tips for finding your own water bears, and keeping them as pets.

• Hunting for 'Bears' in the Backyard

  http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artmay99/dwbear.html
  Illustrated method for finding terrestrial tardigrades, an article from the Microscopy UK web magazine.

• International Society of Tardigrade Hunters

  http://tardigradehunters.weebly.com/
  Advancing the study of tardigrade biology while engaging and collaborating with the public.

• Julia's water bear world

  http://www.ilovewaterbears.com/#!science/c16j9
  Julia loves water bears.

• Just another reason why tardigrades are the best micro-animals

  http://io9.gizmodo.com/just-another-reason-why-tardigrades-are-the-best-micro-1531126448
  Nicknamed water bears and moss piglets, the tiny creatures called tardigrades are adorable under the laser scanning microscope. Plus they can survive in the vacuum of space.

• Life at the Limits Now Open

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncAoRru5qtQ
  Video about 2015 "Life at the Limits" exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History

• Moonstruck

  http://moonstruck2010.wordpress.com/
  Two American college students looking for tardigrades in China to send to the moon, on a Google Lunar X Prize mission

• Mosses: More than just green forest dwellers

  http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/110609/out_513336214.shtml
  Feature story about mosses and the tiny organisms that live on them.

• NASA Selects 26 Space Biology Research Proposals

  http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-selects-26-space-biology-research-proposals/
  In August 2014, NASA announced upcoming space biology projects to be carried out on the International Space Station.

• Nature Studies: We've lost touch with the tiny, microscopic things

  http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/nature_studies/nature-studies-by-michael-mccarthy-weve-lost-touch-with-the-tiny-microscopic-things-7728979.html
  A newspaper article about a lost appreciation for microscopic organisms.

• Nature's Secrets: What is the Most Common Species in Southwest Florida?

  http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050911/COLUMNIST18/509110849
  A newspaper article about tardigrades from the Herald Tribune of Southwest Florida.

• New to nature No 105: Austeruseus faroensis

  http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/jun/09/austeruseus-faroensis-faroes-new-nature
  A series in The Guardian focuses this time on a new tardigrade species

• Nothing frozen in Biomatrica’s storage process

  http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2011/dec/04/nothing-frozen-in-biomatricas-storage-process/
  San Diego Union-Tribune story about a company developing a storage process for biological samples, exploiting natural processes from tardigrades.

• Science Lesson Plan: Animals, Grades K-1 | Common Core

  http://commoncore.scholastic.com/resources/science-lesson-plan-animals-grades-k-1
  Lesson plan on animals for grades K-1 includes a blank Know/Want to Know/Learned chart and a featured extension on tardigrades.

• Soil organisms: It's pretty vicious down there

  http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/soil-organisms-its-pretty-vicious-down-there
  Conservancy scientist Sophie Parker dishes the dirt on soil organisms and why you should care.

• Tardigrada - Encyclopedia of Life

  http://www.eol.org/pages/3204
  Tardigrades section of the Encyclopedia of Life project

• Tardigrade

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrada
  Wikipedia article about water bears including their anatomy, evolution and adaptations to life in extreme environments.

• Tardigrade is plump, loveable

  http://boingboing.net/2012/11/26/tardigrade-is-plump-loveable.html
  Blog post with a photo of a water bear

• Tardigrade Newsletter

  http://www.tardigrada.net/
  Current research on tardigrades compiled by two researchers.

• Tardigrades

  http://www.tardigrades.de/
  Introduction, taxonomy of the tardigrade genera, and a description of Pseudobiotus megalonys. In German and English.

• Tardigrades

  http://tardigrades.bio.unc.edu/
  Movies, pictures, protocols and publications from a research laboratory at the University of North Carolina.

• Tardigrades

  http://www.baertierchen.de/main_engl.html
  A monthly web magazine, video clips, and images.

• Tardigrades - Bears of the Moss

  http://www.emporia.edu/ksn/v43n3-may1997/
  An article from the Kansas School Naturalist features information about the habitat, anatomy, physiology, and special adaptations to extreme weather. Also, describes how to collect and study samples. Includes photos and diagrams.

• Tardigrades Are One Giant Head

  http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/inkfish/2016/01/26/tardigrades-are-one-giant-head/
  A Discover Magazine post about the evolutionary origins of tardigrades

• Tardigrades Have the Right Stuff to Resist Radiation

  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/science/tardigrades-water-bears-survival.html?_r=0
  A short article from the New York Times on a new discovery about how water bears survive high levels of radiation

• Tardigrades in Space

  http://tardigradesinspace.blogspot.com/
  TARDIS, a research project evaluating the ability of tardigrades to survive in open space conditions.

• Tardigrades on Tumblr

  http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tardigrades
  Tardigrade images on Tumblr, some animated

• Tardigrades, Frozen for 30 Years, Spring Back to Life

  http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2016/01/18/frozen-for-30-years-a-tardigrade-springs-back-to-life/
  Discovery Magazine blog story about tardigrades that were revived after being frozen for 30 years.

• The 7 biggest unsolved mysteries in science

  http://www.digit.in/general/7-greatest-unsolved-problems-in-science-26132.html
  A list of some unsolved mysteries in science.

• The Few Tough Species That Survive the Rigors of Nothingness

  http://nautil.us/blog/the-few-tough-species-that-survive-the-rigors-of-nothingness
  Story about water bears and lichens surviving exposure to the vacuum of space.

• The Incredible Water Bear

  http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artjun00/mmbearp.html
  Article from Microscopy UK, illustrated with still images and video clips.

• The Indomitable Water Bear

  http://www.smallsciencecollective.org/2010/08/indomitable-water-bear.html
  Blog post about a short water bear zine by Chicago artist Alex Chitty

• The pied piper of cool science tools

  http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2014/04/10/the-pied-piper-of-cool-science-tools/
  Stanford bioengineer Manu Prakash and his students developed an inexpensive, paper microscope for seeing all sorts of things, including water bears.

• The Virtually Indestructible Water Bear

  http://www.dogonews.com/2014/4/5/the-virtually-indestructible-water-bear
  A news story for kids about water bears

• This tiny creature is called a tardigrade

  http://earthsky.org/todays-image/this-tiny-creature-is-called-a-tardigrade
  Image of the day from EarthSky: a colorful tardigrade image produced by confocal microscopy.

• Tiny water bears become first creatures to survive in space

  http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1054351/Tiny-water-bears-creatures-survive-space.html
  Daily Mail story about tardigrades surviving a trip in open space

• Top 10 Things Launched Into Space in 2008

  http://www.wired.com/2009/01/top-10-things-l/
  Wired story about 2008 space launch cargo, including tardigrades

• Unusual Creatures, Beautiful Sounds: Composer Michael Hearst's New Album

  http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2012/06/07/unusual-creatures-beautiful-sounds-composer-michael-hearsts-new-album-inspired-by-evolutions-wonders/
  An album of songs inspired by animals, including one song inspired by tardigrades.

• World's Hardiest Organisms to Face 3 Years in Space

  http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/4295922
  News from Popular Mechanics that a Russian spaceship that will visit one of Mars' moons will carry tardigrades and some other hardy organisms there and back

• Wunderkammer, A Handmade Cabinet of Curiosity: Tardigrade pattern

  http://jpolka.blogspot.com/2011/09/tardigrade-pattern.html
  Instructions for making a crochet water bear, with some photos.

Other Languages

• German

 

Home > Science > Biology > Flora and Fauna > Animalia > Tardigrada

 

---

 

Thanks to DMOZ, which built a great web directory for nearly two decades and freely shared it with the web. About us