Tardigrades are incredibly tough animals that can survive a wide range of dangers, including many that would destroy most other creatures.
Different tardigrade species have adapted to different environments on the planet. Their resilience can help them survive accidental adventures, which can lead to opportunities.
A new example of tardigrade biodiversity, a previously unknown species adapted for dunes sand, and new evidence suggesting some tardigrades find habitats to colonize by riding inside snails are offered by researchers.
The tardigrade was discovered in a dune forest in the North Ostrobothnia region ofFinland.
The landscape of Rokua has been shaped by glaciers and wind. The inland dune forest is threatened by humans.
A team of scientists led by Matteo Vecchi, a Biologist at the University of Jyvaskyla, went to collect moss, lichen, leaf litter, and grass roots from the sand.
They discovered a new species of tardigrades. It's the fifth member of the Macrobiotus pseudohufelandi complex, a group of tardigrades with reduced legs and claw-like appendages.
The species Macrobiotus Naginae was named after a snake in the "Harry Potter" books.
"Formerly a cursed woman who is irreversibly transformed into a limbless beast, this fictional character provides a fitting name for the new species in the pseudohufelandi complex, which is characterized by reduced legs and claws," they wrote.
The tardigrades may have evolved smaller limbs in order to crawl through the soil or sand.
Tardigrades have a special ability for surviving long dry spells, which could be useful in more arid environments.
Tardigrades excrete water from their bodies, which becomes a dry, almost-indestructible speck called a tun. A tardigrade can survive for a long time in this suspended state.
Extreme temperature, high pressure, oxygen deprivation, X-ray bombardment, and exposure to the vacuum of space can all be mitigated by the tun state.
Tardigrades might be able to endure dry spells in their habitats, or they might be able to colonize new places if the wind sweeps them away.
The tun state isn't the only way to travel according to Vecchi and his colleagues. It's too wet for anhydrobiosis in a snail's gut, for example, but their study suggests ingestion and defecation by snail is still a viable mode of transportation.
Plants and seeds can survive passage through a snail's gut as well as other tiny creatures.
Some other studies have shown that snails don't have a good safety record for tardigrade passengers.
Five of the 10 tardigrades were alive when they were recovered from the feces of the snails. They retrieved 218 live tardigrades from the snails' feces after feeding them 694 tardigrades.
78 dead tardigrades were found in the feces and were supposed to have been eaten by the snails.
The tardigrades who survived were able to reproduce successfully in the lab.
The majority of survivors emerged on the second day of the study. By virtue of their size, snails can travel quicker than tardigrades.
The snails can move up to 5 meters per day on average.
The researchers say that a two-day passage through a snail's gut could help tardigrades travel up to 10 meters per ride.
The tardigrades don't have the power to decide where the snails take them. Any surviving passengers have a good chance of ending up somewhere hospitable because they prefer humid, mossy habitats.
The research was in a journal.
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