Tardigrade

Tardigrade Temporal range: Turonian–Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Middle Cambrian stem-group fossils
Milnesium tardigradum, a eutardigrade
Echiniscus insularis, a heterotardigrade
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Subkingdom:	Eumetazoa
Clade:	ParaHoxozoa
Clade:	Bilateria
Clade:	Nephrozoa
(unranked):	Protostomia
Superphylum:	Ecdysozoa
(unranked):	Panarthropoda
Phylum:	Tardigrada Spallanzani, 1777
Classes
Eutardigrada Heterotardigrada Mesotardigrada (dubious)

Tardigrades (/ˈtɑːrdɪɡreɪdz/ ^ⓘ),^[1] known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets,^[2][3][4][5] are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals.^[2][6] They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them Kleiner Wasserbär 'little water bear'.^[7][8] In 1776, the Italian biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani named them Tardigrada (/tɑːrˈdɪɡrədə/ ^ⓘ), which means 'slow steppers'.^[9][10]

They have been found in diverse regions of Earth's biosphere – mountaintops, the deep sea, tropical rainforests, and the Antarctic.^[10] Tardigrades are among the most resilient animals known,^[11][12] with individual species able to survive extreme conditions – such as exposure to extreme temperatures, extreme pressures (both high and low), air deprivation, radiation, dehydration, and starvation – that would quickly kill most other known forms of life.^[13] Tardigrades have survived exposure to outer space.^[14][15] There are about 1,300 known species^[16] in the phylum Tardigrada, a part of the superphylum Ecdysozoa consisting of animals that grow by ecdysis (shedding an exoskeleton) such as arthropods and nematodes. The earliest known true members of the group are known from Cretaceous (145 to 66 million years ago) amber, found in North America, but are essentially modern forms. Their origin is therefore likely much earlier, as they diverged from their closest relatives in the Cambrian more than 500 million years ago.

Tardigrades are usually about 0.5 mm (0.020 in) long when fully grown.^[2] They are short and plump, with four pairs of legs, each ending in claws (usually four to eight) or suction disks.^[2][17] Tardigrades are prevalent in mosses and lichens and feed on plant cells, algae, and small invertebrates. When collected, they may be viewed under a low-power microscope, making them accessible to students and amateur scientists.^[18]