Why tiny tardigrades walk like insects 500,000 times their size

[Judi Lynn]

By Mindy Weisberger about 7 hours ago

Animals this small and squishy usually don't have legs



A scuttling tardigrade hurries to its next appointment.
(Image credit: Jasmine Nirody)

Pudgy, ungainly tardigrades are among the smallest legged animals on Earth, and these microscopic water bears lumber around like chubby-thighed toddlers. But most creatures as small as tardigrades don't even have legs, so scientists recently analyzed tardigrades in motion to better understand how they use their limbs.

Tardigrades, also known as moss piglets, have segmented bodies and four pairs of legs. They scoot through deep sea sediments and sandy river bottoms, and scurry over lichens and moss on land, scampering toward prospective mates and food or away from predators.

Footage of scuttling tardigrades in the species Hypsibius exemplaris revealed that their movements closely resembled locomotion in insects about 500,000 times their size, despite being separated by around 20 million years of evolution and belonging to a different phylum. The step patterns of insects and other arthropods (invertebrates with segmented bodies and jointed legs) change when the animals speed up, and tardigrades' steps follow similar patterns when they walk faster, the new study found.

Tardigrades, of which there are about 1,300 known species, are notorious for being hard to kill; they can survive exposure to extreme temperatures, solar radiation and the vacuum of space. But few studies have examined these hardy creatures in more ordinary circumstances, and prior to the new study, scientists knew next to nothing about how tardigrades walk, said lead author Jasmine Nirody, a researcher and independent fellow at the The Rockefeller University Center for Studies in Physics and Biology in New York City.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/how-do-tardigrades-walk.html?utm_source=notification

[Rollo]

1. I got interested in tardigrades back in the 70's in University

Back then they were commonly referred to as "water bears".

Significant to zoologists is their ability to withstand freezing (cryopreservation) temperatures.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Cool stuff! Thanks for the link...nt

[Judi Lynn]

3. Thank you, W.B.! ⭐️