Waterbear
This smallest bear in the world can hibernate for decades before coming back to life!
Children, parents and educators will enjoy using these educational
plush toys to teach about hygiene, disease and the human body. Each
microbe comes with a description of the disease it causes or function it
performs. Use these fun, non-threatening toys to emphasize the
importance of washing hands and preventing sickness in social settings.
Surface wash, air dry. Contains 3 mini microbes.
Tardigrades (commonly known as water bears or
moss piglets) form the phylum Tardigrada, part of the superphylum
Ecdysozoa. They are microscopic, water-dwelling, segmented animals with
eight legs. Tardigrades were first described by Johann August Ephraim
Goeze in 1773 (kleiner Wasserbär = little water bear). The name
Tardigrada means "slow walker" and was given by Lazzaro Spallanzani in
1777. The name water bear comes from the way they walk, reminiscent of a
bear's gait. The biggest adults may reach a body length of 1.5
millimetres (0.059 in), the smallest below 0.1 mm. Freshly hatched
larvae may be smaller than 0.05 mm.
More than 1,000 species of tardigrades have been described. Tardigrades
occur over the entire world, from the high Himalayas (above 6,000
metres (20,000 ft), to the deep sea (below 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) and
from the polar regions to the equator.
The most convenient place to find tardigrades is on lichens and mosses.
Other environments are dunes, beaches, soil, and marine or freshwater
sediments, where they may occur quite frequently (up to 25,000 animals
per litre). Tardigrades often can be found by soaking a piece of moss in
spring water.
Tardigrades are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill
almost any other animal. Some can survive temperatures of −273 °C (−459
°F), close to absolute zero, temperatures as high as 151 °C (304 °F),
1,000 times more radiation than other animals, and almost a decade
without water. In September 2007, tardigrades were taken into low Earth
orbit on the FOTON-M3 mission and for 10 days were exposed to the
vacuum of space. After they were returned to Earth, it was discovered
that many of them survived and laid eggs that hatched normally. |
