(January 6, 2016 at 8:30 pm)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote:

(January 6, 2016 at 2:09 pm)Evie Wrote: Tardigrades are not like ticks or anything lol. They're harmless little microscopic cuddly little cute bastards. They don't make you itch I don't think they even live on people or animals, they suck water from moss lol.

Tardigrades aren't like ticks, but they're certainly not cuddly!!

Watch them under a microscope-- they're the tigers/lions of their size-category. They're voracious, vicious predators.

Damn really? I didn't know, I thought they were cuddly:



Mind you I also thought they were gigantic and road on space rockets:



Why oh why do cartoons have to lie to us like this?

Tardigrades are quite fearsome and dangerous. Here's another tunneling microscope image to illustrate that

* Edwardo Piet looks for tardigrades

* Edwardo Piet fails

(January 6, 2016 at 8:41 pm)Evie Wrote:

Ahhh, a real tardigrade wouldn't need that bubble helmet.

How very true.

(January 6, 2016 at 10:45 pm)Evie Wrote: * Evie looks for tardigrades

* Evie fails

Easiest place to find them is under mossy bark on trees where there's a fair amount of moisture. All you need is a cheap microscope (100-200x magnification should be plenty) and some patience to look through the detritus to find them.

They're really fascinating. My Invertebrate Zoology professor was doing a research paper on them when I took the class, and we collected millions of 'em in really fun field ops, then cataloged them for his research data, during the labs for that class.

Every animal in this thread is fucking adorable. I want to cuddle them all equally.

(January 7, 2016 at 11:20 am)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote:

(January 6, 2016 at 10:45 pm)Evie Wrote: * Evie looks for tardigrades

* Evie fails

Easiest place to find them is under mossy bark on trees where there's a fair amount of moisture. All you need is a cheap microscope (100-200x magnification should be plenty) and some patience to look through the detritus to find them.

They're really fascinating. My Invertebrate Zoology professor was doing a research paper on them when I took the class, and we collected millions of 'em in really fun field ops, then cataloged them for his research data, during the labs for that class.

For my vid upthread, we opened the attic window, took literally the first dime sized piece of moss we found from a roof tile and put it in a bit of water. I think there were like 10 in there. The thought that they are this ridiculously ubiquitous is almost unsettling.