Essay On Water Bears

Water bears are hearty creatures, which inspire people to create useful things, such as the development of a special type of glass and a refrigerator-free form of storage. Water bears are tardigrades, and their hardiness has been put to the test. There are 900 known species of tardigrades. Water bears are also known as moss piglets. German pastor Johann August Ephraim Goeze discovered them in 1776 and named them tardigrade kleiner wasserbar, which means little water bear in German. They were named Tardigrade by the Italian biologist Lazaro Spallanzani, which means, “Slow stepper”. Water bears have a barrel-shaped body that has four pairs of non-jointed legs with feet that have four to eight claws each. Their size can range from 0.3 to 0.5 mm in length, and some of the largest species can reach up to 1.2 mm. The body consists of a head and three body segments each having a pair of legs and a caudal segment that also has a pair of legs. They have a tubular mouth that is armed with …show more content…
During molting reproduction can occur, there are both male and female water bears. They are oviparous, and fertilization occurs externally. During molting the eggs are laid inside of the shed cuticle of the female and then covered with the sperm of the male. The shed cuticle case is attached to a nearby substrate. The eggs hatch after 14 days, and the young already possess all of their adult cells. Growing to adult size occurs through hypertrophy, instead of cell …show more content…
While in this state, their metabolism lowers and their water content drops. Their ability to remain desiccated for long periods of time is dependent on the levels of “non-reducing sugar trehalose, which protects their membranes.” While in cryptobiosis, tardigrades are known as a tun. They can survive in this state for a very long time only reanimating when they come into contact with