Tardigrades (known as Water Bears) are part of supefilum Ecdysozoa, Tardigrada phyla. The size is very small, live in water, with the legs of eight.
Tardigrades first described by Eprhaim Goeze in 1773. Tardigrada name means "slow walker" given by Spallanzani (1777). Tardigrades adult body length is 1.5 mm, the smallest size of 0.1 mm, 0.05 mm-sized larvae.
Tardigrades can be found in all parts of the world, ranging from Himalayan peaks hinngga in the ocean, and from the poles to the equator.
The most favored place berganggang. On the beach, land and water can be found in this mini beast.
The most interesting of these animals is the ability to adapt to extreme environments. Tardigrades can survive in a freezing (0oC) to high temperatures in a (151oc). It can even withstand the radiation 1,000 times higher than the amount of radiation in which other living things to survive. Therefore, the animal known as tardigrades polyextremeophiles
With these capabilities, tardigrades are living things that can survive a nuclear war or other extreme natural disasters. Even tardigrades can live for 120 years in dry conditions.
Another unique capability of tardigrades are able to survive in a state of the vacuum of space. In one study in September 2007, tardigrades can live for as long as 10 days in outer space environment. Tardigrades were lifted up to board a spacecraft FOTON-M3 by the European Space Agency, the state can survive vacuum, exposed to cosmic rays, and can even withstand the sun's UV radiation is 1000 times higher than the radiation at the earth's surface.