Tardigrades
Tardigrades
What do you think is the toughest animal on planet Earth? gorilla? camel? great white shark?, lion? grizzly bear?, killer whale?
Think again-
How do you kill all tardigrades?
Total dehydration? No, not good enough.
Lower the temperature to within one degree of Absolute zero (-273 degrees Centigrade)? No, not good enough.
Raise the temperature to 150 degrees centigrade? No, not good enough.
Exposure to the vacuum and cosmic radiation of outer space? No, not good enough.
Exposure to 1000 times the radiation that kills other animals? No, not good enough.
A pressure of 6000 atmospheres? No not good enough.
Tardigrades have survived 5 mass extinctions.
They are found just about everywhere on earth, usually living in wet places like moss or the sediment at the bottom of lakes. Are they found at Rannoch? Of course they are. Mind you they are not very big - usually about a millimetre long. There are about 1000 species. Some are vegetarian, some are omnivores, some are carnivores.
Oxford University research -
To our surprise, we found that although nearby supernovas or large asteroid impacts would be catastrophic for people, tardigrades could be unaffected," David Sloan, a co-author of the new study and researcher at Oxford, said in a statement.
It looks like Tardigrades will survive the sixth mass extinction which we are creating with such enthusiasm, but will we? That is very much in doubt.