A possible space dweller ?

[William Gaatjes]

A colleague of mine mentioned an animal that is pretty tough and almost impossible to kill : Tardigrade.

Tardigrades are polyextremophiles and are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. Some can survive temperatures of -273°C, close to absolute zero,[5] temperatures as high as 151 °C (303 °F), 1,000 times more radiation than other animals such as humans,[6] almost a decade without water,[7] and even the vacuum of space.[8] 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, making these the only animals shown to be able to survive the vacuum of space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade


http://tardigradesinspace.blogspot.com/

 

[mutz]

Recent research has revealed that they can also withstand pressure of 6,000 atmospheres, which is nearly six times the pressure of water in the deepest ocean trench.

you forgot 🙂.
pretty tough indeed

.

 

[Murloc]

interesting.

 

[Cogman]

🙂 nice. I'm glad they aren't parasites, these things look to be almost impossible to kill.

 

[DanDaManJC]

yeah I saw some of those stats and immediately wondered if those things were harmful to us... thatd be some super bug indeed

 

[agptek11]

Something of immortality？

 

[cyclohexane]

I for one welcome our water bear overlords.

 

[eddyg17]

I for one welcome our water bear overlords.

Aye, long live the Tardigrade master race!

 

[Nathelion]

The part about pressure resistance makes me wonder what the evolutionary pressure has been to create such resilience. 6 times as much as the deepest ocean trench?

 

[SsupernovaE]

The part about pressure resistance makes me wonder what the evolutionary pressure has been to create such resilience. 6 times as much as the deepest ocean trench?

Maybe some unknown ancestor survived BENEATH the deepest trenches. Perhaps there is life in even in the most inhospitable places, such as in the mantel.

Or, more likely, just random mutations.

 

[Cogman]

Maybe some unknown ancestor survived BENEATH the deepest trenches. Perhaps there is life in even in the most inhospitable places, such as in the mantel.

Or, more likely, just random mutations.

meh. It may have be "purposeful" so to speak. Perhaps something constantly crushed this thing which produces high pressures. Perhaps it was build to live in some digestive system or something along those lines.

 

[Gibsons]

I suspect that in its dormant phase there are few or no air pockets in it. so as you increase the pressure on it, there's really nothing to get compressed or crushed and cause physical damage. IIRC, high pressures can inhibit some enzymes, and cause some problems with membrane fluidity, but for things in a dormant phase that's not such a big deal.