A worm? a robot? Just what Is This?

http://www.livescience.com/48145-evolution-extreme-oddities.html

A worm? a robot?

Images of Evolution’s Extreme Oddities

Credit: From WTF, Evolution?! – Workman Publishing. Water bear or Tardigrade (Paramacrobiotus craterlaki) in moss. Photo © Eye of Science/Science Source

Paramacrobiotus craterlaki

“Okay, this is it. I just came up with the greatest animal yet.”

“This should be good.”

“It’s called a tardigrade. It’s only half a millimeter long, so it’s basically invisible.”

“I see.”

“It has sharp claws for grabbing onto anything and a suction mouth for feeding.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

“But here’s the cool part: It can survive pretty much anything! Drying out? Freezing? Extreme radiation? It doesn’t care. It just hunkers down and waits it out, then pops back to life later on.”

“Huh. I guess that’s kinda cool.”

“And it can even survive in the vacuum of outer space.”

“What? Why would it possibly need to survive in outer space?”

“You never know.”

Images of Evolution’s Extreme Oddities