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water bears

Water bears (tardigrades) create a puzzle re evolution of walking

At Ars Technica: Specifically, as the tardigrades sped up, they would transition between having five legs on the ground, then four legs on the ground, then three legs on the ground—just like insects and arthropods, despite a 20-million-year evolutionary gap between them. " Read More ›

At Science: Water bears most likely did not survive a crash land on the moon

What impact does the test have on panspermia, the hypothesis that life might travel between planets via comets? "some parts of a meteorite impacting Earth or Mars would experience lower shock pressures that a tardigrade could live through, Traspas says." Read More ›

Rob Sheldon on the chances of the tardigrades (water bears) surviving the recent moon crash

Sheldon: Well, I do think that dormant tardigrades, which could survive for hundreds if not thousands of years in a "freeze-dried" state, can be revived when placed in water. If the spacecraft, Beresheet, had crashed with dormant tardigrades, then most definitely they are scattered about the surface of the Moon, waiting for their resurrection day in water. Read More ›