Watch: Tardigrades Take Strolls, Something That You Couldn’t Possibly Imagine
Photo ID 107367432 © Planetfelicity | Dreamstime.com
Tardigrades have a lot of bragging rights. These tiny creatures are probably the smallest legged animal we know to exist, and they do this while donning a soft body—an uncommon characteristic, since animals as small and soft as them often don’t find that walking is much of a priority.
Plus, when you shoot them out of a gun, they still come out alive.
And now, new footage shows that they are, well, really good at walking.
When strolling for leisure, they covered around half of their body length per second. But when sprinting, or at least carrying out their own version of it, they managed to propel themselves two full body lengths in the same second.
Affectionately known as water bears, this mysterious creature earned its nickname when 18th-century scientists observed their “lumbering gait,” akin to bears, when they walked. Eight small, rather adorable legs hoist the creatures up, enabling them to explore new terrain.
But honestly, there aren't too many 'bloopers'! One of the coolest -- and initially most surprising -- things about tardigrades walking to me was how...good they were at it. They have a regular gait, and it looks remarkably like those of much much larger animals! pic.twitter.com/KQhiFx9p2w
— Jasmine Nirody (@jasnir_) March 22, 2021
A study recently published in the PNAS scientific journal details how the team observed tardigrades as they traversed different surfaces including glass. “We find that tardigrades adapt their locomotion to a ‘galloping’ coordination pattern when walking on softer substrates,” the paper states.
“Tardigrades have a robust and clear way of moving—they’re not these clumsy things stumbling around in the desert or in leaf litter,” says Jasmine Nirody, an author of the study.
It was shown that instead of their feet meeting the ground in the same gait as a larger vertebrate (a horse, for example), the little creatures moved more akin to insects, which Nirody says “opens up several very interesting evolutionary questions.”
One of those questions—and perhaps the biggest one—is why do they walk in the first place? This is still largely a mystery to the researchers.
There are two current possibilities; one is that the tardigrades share an undiscovered common ancestor with insects. The other is that this walking trait evolved separately in both as it gave them an evolutionary advantage.
Regardless, it doesn’t change the fact that the little tardigrades scampering around are really quite cute.
The surprising bit though: their gait is super similar to insects' and other arthropods' - animals that are (1) way larger; (2) have rigid skeletons; (3) don't walk underwater!
— Jasmine Nirody (@jasnir_) March 22, 2021
We have some ideas on why - I'll discuss them in a thread soon, promise! But for now, one last stroll pic.twitter.com/R4rBqpaNp2
[via ScienceAlert, photo ID 107367432 © Planetfelicity | Dreamstime.com]
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