Extreme Organism

One extremophile is the tardigrades, also known as waterbears or moss piglets. It is part of the superphylum Ecdysozoa. They have eight legs and are microscopic. Tardigrades can be found in lichens and mosses, dunes, beaches, soil, marine or freshwater sediments, or a soaking piece of moss in spring water. Tardigrades are considered an extreme organism because they are available to survive in environments that would kill other organisms. They feed on the fluids of plants and animal cells. For a tardigrade’s life span, if it never go into a dormant state, then they only live for less than a year, whereas if they do go into dormant state, they can live up to 60 years. As for reproduction, they are oviparous and fertilization is usually external. The eggs hatch no later than fourteen days and the organism hatched already possess its adult cells. They can survive in temperatures near −273 °C (−459 °F) and 151 °C (304 °F). This temperature range has 1,000 times more radiation than other animals would absorb. They can also survive in very low and very high pressure and survive in nearly ten years of dehydration.

Source: http://www.iwu.edu/~tardisdp/tardigrade_facts.html