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Concept

Tardigrades

A tardigrade, a microscopic eight-legged creature resembling a miniature spider, floats against a gradient background with a silhouette of vegetation at the bottom.

A phylum of microscopic eight-legged animals, also known as water bears or moss piglets, typically half a millimetre long or less. Around 1,300 species are described, living in marine sediments, freshwater, and the thin films of moisture inside terrestrial mosses and lichens. They are most famous for cryptobiosis, the ability to dehydrate into an almost-dead barrel form and revive years later.

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