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  • Hello, and welcome to "Weird, Gross, and Beautiful,"

  • a casual discussion about animals that I think

  • are weird, gross, and beautiful, or all three.

  • And today we're talking about tardigrades!

  • Or water bears.

  • Or moss piglets.

  • Aw.

  • These little babies are microscopic,

  • and so you've probably never seen one before.

  • But they can be found anywhere from the equator,

  • to polar regions, to the highest point on Earth,

  • or to the deepest parts of the sea, or your backyard.

  • They're probably there, probably just

  • nibbling on some moss cause that's what they like to do.

  • They're like less than a milliliter long.

  • That's cute.

  • And, oh, so tiny.

  • They are mostly herbivores.

  • Some of them very tiny, and most of them

  • are parasites, but mostly herbivores.

  • They just suck on moss.

  • That's all they do.

  • That's their job is to just go nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, moss,

  • moss, moss.

  • They are the toughest animal on Earth.

  • So if there was a nuclear blast they'd probably

  • be the only things to survive, not cockroaches like everyone

  • seems to think.

  • Ew.

  • Cockroaches, no.

  • They wouldn't.

  • But tardigrades would, and Twinkies.

  • And that is because they have evolved this ability for when

  • their environment becomes too hostile for them

  • to keep sucking on moss and doing whatever they want to do,

  • they die basically, just for a little bit.

  • It's basically like this long hibernation

  • where they just slow down everything in their bodies.

  • When conditions become livable for them again

  • they'll just come back to life like no big deal.

  • Whatever.

  • Yeah.

  • I died.

  • Came back to life.

  • That's how I [BLEEP] roll.

  • In 2007 we sent them into space and we exposed them

  • to solar winds, and subzero temperatures,

  • and an oxygen deprived space vacuum.

  • And then we brought them back to Earth,

  • and they were just like, oh yeah, is that all you got?

  • Bring it on.

  • They have been known to withstand temperatures

  • as low as negative 200 Celsius and as high as 151 Celsius.

  • That's insane.

  • They've also been known to survive pressures

  • as low as the vacuum of outer space and pressures as high

  • as six times the amount of pressure

  • that you would find at the deepest part of our deepest

  • ocean on Earth.

  • What?

  • Why?

  • There's nothing on this Earth that

  • could kill these things, like nothing.

  • But as amazing as these little creatures are,

  • their contributions to the ecosystem

  • is very poorly understand.

  • You go to a scientist, and you're

  • like, tardigrades, what do those do?

  • And they're like I don't [BLEEP] know.

  • There is over 1,000 different types of these little water

  • bears, but some of them are wholly lacking in males.

  • And that's because some of them reproduce with parthenogenesis.

  • And that's where you don't need no man.

  • I'm a strong, independent woman, and I

  • don't need a man to create new life.

  • They are amazing creatures.

  • And I love them.

  • Also, they're fat and cute.

  • Thank you for watching "Weird, Gross, and Beautiful."

  • My name is Catie Wayne, and if you'd like to you

  • can follow me on Twitter.

  • And then you can tell me what animal

  • you would like me to cover next.

  • Today's episode was suggested by Adderall Apocalypse.

  • So thank you so much.

  • This was great, and I loved learning about these things.

  • So muah, thank you.

  • And if you would like to you could check out

  • these videos over here.

  • And you can subscribe and like the video,

  • because that would really help me out a lot.

  • I love you so much, and I'll see you next time.

  • Bye.

  • Muah.

  • [ANIMAL NOISES]

Hello, and welcome to "Weird, Gross, and Beautiful,"

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