Tardigrades

1. Tardigrades One of the most extreme and adapted animals.

2. Classifications Classifications: Kingdom: Animal Phylum: Tardigrada Class:Heterotardigrada Order:Echiniscoidea Family:Echiniscidae Genus:Echiniscis Species: Echiniscis

3. Habitat Tardigrades can be found almost everywhere on Earth! Tardigrades have been seen from mountain tops to very deep seas, from moss to freezing waters in Antarctic! Most species of Tardigrades live in freshwater or semi aquatic areas. Most species of Tardigrades can easily be found living in a layer of water on lichens and mosses, as well as sand, soil and dead leaves on the ground. It even be living in your house! Right now! Tardigrade in its habitat eating moss Moss A picture of a Tardigrade through a low power microscope

4. How it lives and its diet There’s not a lot to say on how it lives, Tardigrades just eat and walk around for more food. But in dangerous situations what makes the Tardigrades unique is their ability called cryptobiosis (krip-toe-bye-oh-sihs) But we’ll get to that ability later. To eat they use a special “sucker” that allows them to eat their food, the “sucker” is different according the creatures diet. The creatures diet depends on what species of Tardigrade Tardigrades aren’t very picky when they eat! Their diet includes… Bacteria Plants Fluids from animals (Only some species do this) Other Tardigrades! (Only some species do this) Nematodes (little worms) Nematodes Moss Tardigrade A tardigrades mouth aka “sucker”

5. Adaptations Tardigrades have a special ability called cryptobiosis (krip-toe-bye-oh-sihs) Simply put, it allows the tardigrade to withstand a lot of extreme situations that would normally kill most animals. When they do this their water content goes from 85% to 3%. It’s actually insanely hard to kill a tardigrade. Temperature: 151°C to −273°C (-273°C is almost absolute zero) Pressure: Extremely low pressure of a vacuum and 1,200 atmospheric pressure. Starvation and dehydration : Up to 10 years with no water and food, highest record of survival is a 120 year old tardigrade. Radiation: 1000 times more radiation than a elephant, also taridgrades can repair DNA after exposure to UV radiation. Outer space: Amazingly Tardigrades are the first known animal to survive in space, but they can stay alive for only for 10 days

6. Cat Food chain Lion Weasel Bacteria Sun The great white shark Animal cells Tardigrade Birds Amoebas Whales Plant cells Zoo plankton Nemotodes Fish

7. Human activity and climate change Tardigrades practically live about EVERYWHERE, so we cant destroy all the habitats. Tardigrade habitats aren’t really threatened by human activity, but a lot of Tardigrade species live on moss. So if we keep using moss killing products some Tardigrades might lose a home, but it doesn’t really matter to the Tardigrades. Even when you destroy a Tardigrade’s habitat it doesn’t really matter because of the Tardigrade’s cryptobiosis ability. Tardigrades live in oceans and if you were to try to pollute the ocean it would not really affect the Tardigrade, it might affect other aquatic animals but the Tardigrade would not care because of it’s cryptobiosis ability. Climate change would not even affect a Tardigrade, they can survive just a degree above absolute zero and up to 151°C. But moss would just die at those temperatures while oceans would freeze or evaporate.

8. Thanksforwatchingmypresentation!By:Kenson

9. Sources and other stuff • http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/tardigrade/index.html • http://animals.jrank.org/pages/1728/Water-Bears-Tardigrada-BEHAVIOR-REPRODUCTION.html • http://www.wikihow.com/Find-and-Care-for-a-Pet-Tardigrade-%28-Water-Bear-%29 • http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2008/shifflet_bran/nutrition.htm • http://www.cracked.com/article_18471_5-animals-that-are-terrifyingly-hard-to-kill.html • http://www.ask.com/question/what-does-bacteria-eat • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI0gKXnmgdQ