On this special day, Earth day, it's important to consider ALL our living creatures, even those we cannot see. I'm talking about tardigrades, which are amazing microscopic creatures living in our soils, resilient enough to be able to survive radiation. They're micro-animals also known as water bears, though bears they are not. They're chubby little critters with telescoping legs that look as if they might have inspired sci-fi and fantasy monsters.
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| Popular Science Science Photo Library/Getty Images |
This 0.02 inch creature (about the size of the period at the end of this sentence) lives in mosses, lichens, as well as soil and leaf litter as a nutrient recycler. They can suspend their metabolism, so are not affected by extremes. I've never seen one, but there can be "as many as 300,000 per square metre" in soil, or "over 2 million per square metre" on mossy substrates! Wikipedia
We have to stop destroying them willy-nilly with our thoughtless land use upheaval practices - their capabilities to handle extremes may help us save our planet one day. They are already helping us learn how to counter the effects of radiation treatments. Though they are practically indestructible, they have one weakness - hot water, which can kill them.
On this Earth Day, resolve to give nature and all living things more than a passing thought on a regular basis.
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