Abstract

Tardigrades (also called water bears) are tiny, eight-legged animals that live all over Earth. They need water to be active, but have an amazing ability to survive long times without water. Tardigrades can even survive being in space! They survive by drying out into a hard little lump called a tun. We wanted to know how different species of tardigrades handle drying out. We found that some tardigrade species recover from their tun stage faster than others.