Water Bear (Tardigrade) Meets Paramecium

[frogmarch]

from Wiki:

Usually, tardigrades are 1 mm (0.039 in) long when they are fully grown. They are short and plump with 4 pairs of legs, each with 4-8 claws also known as "disks." The animals are prevalent in moss and lichen and feed on plant cells, algae, and small invertebrates. When collected, they may be viewed under a very low-power microscope, making them accessible to students and amateur scientists.

Most tardigrades are phytophagous (plant eaters) or bacteriophagous (bacteria eaters), but some are predatory (e.g., Milnesium tardigradum.)

I agree with the You Tube comment that since the tardigrade in the video can’t seem to go anywhere, it appears to be caught between the glass plates of the microscope.

[DetlefK]

1. Why is it walking backwards? Is that normal?

[frogmarch]

2. I think it may be having

trouble navigating on the glass plate it's on. A You Tube comment suggested the tardigrade might be "pinned" down between the upper and lower plates and that's why it isn't going anywhere.

I don't know what's normal for a tardigrade.

[marble falls]

3. I think they are acting normal. This is how they act everytime I've ever seen them under a ...

microscope. More interesting is why they seem to be seen only on a glass slide.

[DetlefK]

4. Because you have to focus your microscope on a given distance.

Anything closer or farther away turns blurry.

I guess that Tardigrades are about 100 micrometers long and (at the necessary zoom-factors) you can estimate the same amount for the volume of your focal point.

[MannyGoldstein]

5. That's awesome, thanks.

Tardigrades are wild. They're macro at the micro level.