Some waterbears are carnivores, they eat rotifers, nematodes, protozoa, etc. and some waterbears are herbivores, they eat parts of the moss plant or algae. These are close up pictures of the tardigrade mouth. You can see the mouth, the buccal tube, the stylet supports, the pharynx and
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Tardigrades are animals that lend themselves to Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), yet the literature is vague about the process of preparing of the animals for the procedure. A simple, step-by-step protocol for the preparation of tardigrades for SEM is provided. The method includes the construction of a
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Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 83(1): 10-16, 2009 ABSTRACT The patterns of habitat (moss or lichen) selection have been elusive for tardigrades. Samples of habitat were coUected from ten different substrates (species of tree), the nematodes, rotifers, and tardigrades counted, and their distribution, density,
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G. Pilato and L. Rebecchi (Guest Editors) Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on Tardigrada J. Limnol., 66(Suppl. 1): 126-131, 2007 ABSTRACT A fifteen month study (December 2002 though February 2004) of a meiofaunal community living in moss and lichen from a Pecan tree on the
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When a waterbear is in an unfavorable environment it can go into cryptobiosis. This is basically dying and then when conditions return to normal they come back to life. To do this they expel all the water from their bodies, pull in all their appendages, and bring
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Parthenogenesis is the ability of the female in a species to reproduce without the male to fertilize the eggs. Tardigrades have both kinds of populations around the globe, the all female and the male/female. Parthenogenesis allows for the lone tardigrade female to populate a new
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Waterbears don’t actually have teeth the grinding parts of their mouth are called placoids. They are the small dark spots that look like stones in a circle. The pharynx around the placoids expands and contracts in order to chew the food. The Y shaped structure at the
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There are as many different kinds of eggs as there are tardigrades. The two main types are smooth and spiny. The smooth eggs are laid in the old exuviae of the mother. The spiny ones are laid right into the environment and they latch onto it with
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In many tardigrade populations there are males, females, juveniles and eggs. There are some populations that only have females, juveniles and eggs. This is a phenomenon called parthenogenesis where the females can lay unfertilized eggs that grow up to be clones of the original female
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One of the coolest things about the unbelievable animal is that there are so many undiscovered species out there! It is a rare and amazing thing for a scientist to discover something that no one else has found. It is awesome how the tiniest detail can
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