Straight out of the WTF column, this creature is odd and indestructible. Probably the toughest creature on Earth, the tardigrade or water bear, can survive extreme cold, outer space, dehydration and probably a nuclear war. Using cryptobiosis, the tardigrade can send its metabolic processes nearly to a screeching halt. From being dehydrated to a meager 3% of its normal water content, the critter can jet back to life with a bit of water.
“They are probably the most extreme survivors that we know of among animals,” said biologist Bob Goldstein of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “People talk about cockroaches surviving anything. I think long after the cockroaches would be killed we’d still have dried water bears that could be rehydrated and be alive.”
From the pressures of outer space, to radiation to surviving some of the coldest temperatures on Earth, this creature can survive it all. Read more about this perplexing create over at WIRED magazine.
[via WIRED]
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