Chatterbox: Down to Earth

Tardigrades! Leaf and I were discussing them on a different thread and decided to make one for them, so here it is.

Anyway, for those who have no idea what they are and are curious, I'll finally give a definition (but you can look at the length of the paragraph to decide whether you want to read it, whether you're curious or not. If you just ignore this thread it's perfectly fine and I won't mind. Anyone who knows what they are is recommended to skip to the next bit.). Tardigrades (AKA water bears or moss piglets) are these microscopic animals that look like little walking gummy bears (well, some do, anyway), live in all sorts of places (probably including your own yard and/or roof, wherever that is), and can survive anything: They fold up their bodies into what are called tuns and stay still without eating, moving, breathing, or anything, and can stay this way for years or even decades if necessary! But just add water and they're running around again (most of the time, anyway)! They can survive drought, starvation, extreme temperatures, lack of air... All sorts of things, even trips to outer space and exposure to solar radiation! Not that I approve at all of their being sent to outer space and exposed to solar radiation, because I don't, but the fact that most of them (not all, unfortunately) lived after this was done (which it was) is still amazing! And they're much more similar to animals thousands of times their size than they are to other microbes—they have eight legs and brains and muscles (My dad doesn't believe that microscopic creatures can have muscles. Maybe I'll have to show him a video of one moving...) and claws and, well, you get the point. And they're adorable when they move... And many of their signs of aging are similar to those of humans!

So, anyway, definition over... I ordered a pillow with a picture of one a while back. It came today! It was an old eutardigrade, so not exactly the cutest in the world, but I like it, and its eyes are fascinating. They're the kind that look like they have lenses, which remnds me of the eye question. I keep wondering how well they can see. This photo makes it look like their eyes have lenses, and therefore work well, but since it hasn't been proven, who knows? I think it probably differs from species to species, though. It seems to explain things better than most of the other theories...