So, what are tardigrades, well tardigrades are microscopic creatures that live in many different places, they are classified as semi-aquatic because they can live in the ocean or on plants and even active lava fields! Tardigrades are only about 0.5mm in length meaning you can only just see them with a magnifying glass and you need to look very carefully. Tardigrades can reproduce alone or with a mate (it doesn’t really matter to them) and they don’t usually have a very long life span but they have a very special trick they use only as a last resort.
Well, the first thing that they do is tuck their legs into their body, then they slow their metabolic rate to about ten thousand times slower than normal, then they get rid of 99% of the water in their body.
