Tardigrades
The Toughest Organism in the World
When conditions get to tough tardigrades can just die and come back to life when they want.
Then when they are done with that they can just wake up and can continue their life goal of sucking up water and eating moss.
They can survive:
- Temperatures as low as -200 °C (-328 °F) and as high as 151 °C (304 °F);
- Freezing in a block of ice,
- Lack of oxygen,
- Lack of water for as long as decade(s).
- Levels of X-ray radiation 1000x the lethal human dose,
- Most noxious chemicals,
- Boiling alcohol,
- Low pressure of a vacuum; like that of space,
- And high pressure (up to 6x the pressure of the deepest part of the ocean).
Then when they are done with that they can just wake up and can continue their life goal of sucking up water and eating moss.
Status: Least concern
We are studying Tardigrades so we can see what makes them so tough. Then maybe we can apply what makes them tough to humans and other endangered animals.