The most resilient organism on earth. The most enduring animals are the inhabitants of the Sahara

These tardigrades are one of the hardiest creatures on our planet. They survive for more than a hundred years without water, are able to survive at -271°C in liquid helium and at +100°C in boiling water, withstand 1000 times the dose of radiation than humans, and even stay in outer space!

Tardigrades attracted the attention of the first researchers with their amazing endurance. On the onset adverse conditions they are capable of falling into a state of suspended animation for years; and with the onset of favorable conditions, it quickly revives. Tardigrades survive mainly due to the so-called. anhydrobiosis, drying. When dried, they draw limbs into the body, decrease in volume and take the shape of a barrel. The surface is covered with a wax coating that prevents evaporation. During anabiosis, their metabolism drops to 0.01%, and the water content can reach up to 1% of normal.

In a state of suspended animation, tardigrades endure incredible loads.

Temperature. Withstand stay for 20 months. in liquid air at -193°C, eight hours of liquid helium cooling down to -271°C; heating up to 60-65°C for 10 hours and up to 100°C for an hour.

Ionizing radiation of 570,000 roentgens kills approximately 50% of exposed tardigrades. For humans, the lethal dose of radiation is only 500 roentgens.

Atmosphere: Revived after half an hour in a vacuum. Quite a long time can be in the atmosphere of hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide.

Pressure: In an experiment by Japanese biophysicists, “sleeping” tardigrades were placed in an airtight Plastic container and immersed him in a chamber filled with water high pressure, gradually bringing it to 600 MPa (approx. 6000 atmospheres), which is almost 6 times higher than the pressure level at the lowest point of the Mariana Trench. At the same time, it does not matter what liquid the container was filled with: water or a non-toxic weak solvent, perfluorocarbon C8F18, the survival results were the same.

Outer space: In an experiment by Swedish scientists, the tardigrade species Richtersius coronifer and Milnesium tardigradum were divided into three groups. One of them, upon arrival in orbit, found itself in vacuum conditions and was subjected to cosmic radiation. The other group, in addition, was also exposed to ultraviolet A and B (280 - 400 nm). The third group of animals was exposed to the full spectrum of ultraviolet (116 - 400 nm). All tardigrades were in a state of suspended animation. After 10 days spent in open space, almost all organisms were dried up, but on board the spacecraft, the tardigrades returned to normal. Most of the animals exposed to ultraviolet radiation with a wavelength of 280 - 400 nm survived and were able to reproduce. However, ultraviolet irradiation had a critical effect, only 12% of the animals of the second group survived, all of them belonged to the species Milnesium tardigradum. However, the survivors were able to produce normal offspring, although their fertility was lower than that of the control group that was on Earth. All animals from the third group died a few days after returning to Earth.

Humidity: a case is known when moss taken from the desert, after about 120 years after its drying, was placed in water, the tardigrades that were in it came to life and were able to reproduce.

If you think that only cockroaches can survive a nuclear explosion, then you are wrong. Before you - the most tenacious creature on the planet. It can survive in space, with the strongest radiation, at the bottom of the ocean, in a frozen state, being alive without air, food and food for years. It seems that this creature is immortal. Meet the Little Water Bear, or Tardigrade. […]

If you think that only cockroaches can survive a nuclear explosion, then you are wrong. Before you - the most tenacious creature on the planet. It can survive in space, with the strongest radiation, at the bottom of the ocean, in a frozen state, being alive without air, food and food for years. It seems that this creature is immortal.

Meet the Little Water Bear, or Tardigrade.

Science has known tardigrades for a long time. This species of microscopic invertebrates was discovered back in 1773. It is because of the similarity with the bear, despite the eight legs, that the creature received the name Little Water Bear or Moss Pig.

With their paws, they cling to everything in a row or simply use it as flippers when they are in the water. Tardigrades breathe through their skin. Despite the fact that tardigrades do not belong to the class of insects, their body is covered with a chitinous cover, and they also molt.

Why are they so alive?

Scientists still cannot find the answer to this question. Tardigrades were sent into outer space. In addition to the vacuum of space, tardigrades were exposed to solar radiation, which is a thousand times (!!!) higher than the background of the earth.

And what do you think?

These creatures not only survived. They quietly laid eggs and multiplied.

What is paradoxical: tardigrades, like no other in the world, are able to instantly adapt to an extreme environment. Scientists threw them into boiling water, and the tardigrades swam there for an hour, after which they simply curled up and hibernated. At a temperature of minus 273°C, tardigrades roamed around calmly, breeding. These creatures were placed in alcohol, helium, other liquids, absolutely unsuitable for survival, and they lived quietly there.

So it's safe to say that this is the most tenacious creature on the planet. And perhaps the most amazing thing.

Boil it, put it in a pressure chamber for several hours, then freeze it, completely dehydrate it, and finally, expose it to radioactive radiation. No, this is not a gourmet recipe. All these actions are united by the fact that they can easily be transferred by the most tenacious creature on the planet - the tardigrade.

So imagine the following experiments:

• freezing with liquid helium to -271 C for eight hours, and then more than a year of existence at a temperature of -173 C;
• exposure to radiation of 500,000 roentgens (for comparison, only 500 roentgens are enough to kill a person);
• completely deprive for several days of oxygen;
• put in a pressure chamber with a pressure of 6000 atmospheres (in the ocean at a depth of 1 km, the pressure is about 100 atmospheres);
• lift into outer space ();
• deprive of water for a hundred years;

If a tardigrade would offer to an ignorant person to bet that after all these unpleasant procedures she would survive, then the cunning invertebrate would easily win!

Tardigrades can withstand such doses of radiation fifty times higher than the doses withstand famous cockroaches. And they are the only living beings that can stay in near-vacuum space for a long time without consequences. In dry climates, a tardigrade can remain dormant for more than 100 years, and then wake up when the environment is wet enough. During the experiment, it was found that some individuals came to life after 120 years of conservation!

Tardigrades have been known to science since 1770 and many of their species have been discovered to this day, living in the most extreme places on the planet. Tardigrades have been found under the Arctic ice cap, in deserts where there has been no rain for several decades, in geothermal springs where the temperature exceeds what would seem to be limits for living beings.

On this moment about 900 species are known, 120 of which live in Russia. You may even be able to spot a few record holders in a country pond or in the moss of trees. Fortunately, some species can be distinguished with the naked eye, as their body grows up to 1.5 mm.

What allows the tardigrade to endure so many extreme conditions? She owes this to her unique feature of almost completely turning off metabolism and hibernating. At the same time, the tardigrade actively produces a substance called trehalose, a disaccharide that protects the membranes that make up the creature's body. By the way, scientists seriously consider trehalose as one of the components that will help to avoid cellular damage during freezing in a cryochamber. After falling asleep, the tardigrade loses up to 97% of its body weight and can be easily carried even by air currents, traveling high above the surface.

The combination of these factors makes it possible to assume who will be the new owner of the Earth in the event of a global catastrophe.

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We are used to the fact that the main advantage of man over other animals is the presence of intelligence and the ability to think, which, ultimately, helped him become the dominant species in the world. the globe. Competing with animals in physical superiority at first glance seems stupid - an unarmed person can never defeat a bear or a tiger. But it turns out that we have a hidden weapon with which we can surpass absolutely any creature in the world - this is the duration of the run.

Interest in running has become especially noticeable recently, when mass marathons with the participation of thousands of people began to be held in cities. Passion for running exercises led to in-depth research into the mechanisms of running, not only in humans, but also in animals. Observing various animals and people, scientists have revealed one unusual feature in a person - he surpasses all other living creatures with his endurance.

Comparing the running speed of a person with a cheetah or, say, with a horse is rather silly: the animal will easily win. But animals never run long distances. The same cheetah, having accelerated for a few seconds to breathtaking speed, will be forced to rest for an hour in the shade under a tree, bringing its own body temperature back to normal. If a cheetah competed in running with an athlete - a marathon runner, then a person, in the end, would certainly outrun him. Simply because a person does not have to stop to optimize their own body temperature. He will do it on the run under the control of the excretory system. The absence of thick hair and perfect perspiration is a huge gift of evolution, with the help of which a person can run great distances without rest. On a hot day at a marathon distance of 42 kilometers, a man will even defeat a horse.

Sarah the cheetah, the fastest mammal in the world, runs 100 meters in 5.95 seconds. But even she won't win a long-distance race against a man.

Scientists believe that the unique endurance in running modern man owes to his distant ancestors, who, having not yet invented the sling and bow, were forced to run after the animal for a long time in order to wear it down, and then kill it with a stone or a club. Over thousands of years of such hunting, a person has developed an organism ideally adapted for running. This is evidenced not only by the most perfect perspiration system of all living organisms, but also by a number of other features. For example, the proportions of the foot and toes are ideal for long runs. If the latter were at least 20% longer, in the process of running, the muscles of the legs would have to do 2 times more work than they do now. Even the fact that the thumb is always in a straightened state and is much more powerful than all the others in order to carry out the main pushing action in the process of running speaks about the fitness of our body for running. The narrow waist allows us to freely use our arms while running, maintaining a straight trajectory of movement, and a developed sense of balance allows us to keep our heads still even when running on uneven surfaces. And the largest muscle in the human body - the gluteus maximus muscle - begins to fully work only when running, hardly even performing half of its capacity when walking.

All these factors give a person huge advantages while running, which neither the speed nor the strength of other animals can overcome.

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Man has created many miracles in the world, but this is incomparable with what miracles nature creates! It remains only to be amazed and admire her creations. And how many more unexplored mysteries are fraught with the planet Earth!

We all know that the world amazing and beautiful, but when faced with some unusual creations of nature, we are again amazed and admired. There are organisms so tenacious that it seems that they are immortal. The article presents the most tenacious representatives of the animal world, able to survive sudden climate change, extreme temperatures, powerful doses of radiation and much more.

Here is a selection of some of the most resilient living organisms known today.

tardigrade

The most enduring creature on the planet can be called this unusual microscopic animal, whose body length is only 1.5 millimeters. It lives in the water and is called the "water bear", although it has nothing to do with these animals.

The tardigrade boasts a unique ability - to be able to adapt to any living conditions. She can survive both very low and high temperatures(from -273 to +151 degrees), as well as exposure to radiation, which is 1,000 times the lethal dose for other creatures on the planet. It can survive in a vacuum, and is also able to live without moisture for 10 years.

Vestimentifera

A miracle of nature are two-meter worms living in the impenetrable darkness of the seabed at a pressure of 260 atmospheres. They gather at the "black smokers" - places of breaks in geological plates, from which water, heated to +400 ° C and saturated with hydrogen sulfide, beats.

These living creatures do not have intestines and mouths, but they live on symbiotic bacteria. Circulatory system The animal delivers hydrogen sulfide to these bacteria from underwater mineral springs.

The bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans

The most enduring creatures in the world include this unique creature that can withstand unrealistic doses of radiation. The genome of the bacterium is stored in four copies, and the substances secreted from it have the ability to heal wounds. There is an opinion that this microbe is of unearthly origin.

These bacteria thrive at 5,000 Gy radiation. There are specimens that survive at a dose of 15,000 units. For example, it should be noted that for a person, a dose of 10 grays is fatal.

immortal jellyfish

Turritopsis nutricula, known as the immortal jellyfish, fully deserves such a name. After reaching puberty, she again returns to the original stage of the polyp and begins her maturation again. This process in a jellyfish can last indefinitely. The life cycle of this unique living creature can be repeated many times.

Medusa, considered the only immortal creature on the planet, is now under the scrutiny of scientists. It is being actively studied by geneticists and marine biologists to understand how it manages to reverse the aging process that is inevitable.

Fish Lang

And this fish turned out to be one of the most tenacious creatures on earth. It is the rarest and one of the few aquatic inhabitants (lungfish) that have survived to this day.

This fish, in fact, is a transitional link from ordinary fish to amphibians. She has both lungs and gills. In times of drought, it is able to dig into the mud and hibernate, calmly doing without food. long time.

This amazing insect can also be attributed to the most tenacious creatures on earth, according to appearance similar to a grasshopper, but having giant size. The tree weta is predominantly found in New Zealand.

Due to the fact that in the blood of this animal there is a special protein that excludes blood clotting, it is able to withstand very low temperatures. It should be noted that during periods of such "hibernation" the heart and brain of these insects are turned off. However, as soon as they “thaw out”, all organs begin to work again.

Sea bass

This fish is considered long-lived sea ​​creature. It usually lives at depths of 170-670 meters in waters Pacific Ocean. This fish grows very slowly and reaches maturity quite late. She can live up to 200 years. The oldest specimen found is about 205 years old.

It turns out that the list of the most tenacious creatures on earth can be replenished by sea bass.

According to some scientists, bowhead whales are the oldest mammals on planet Earth. There is evidence that a whale named Bada lived to be 245 years old.

Most bowhead whales live to be 20-60 years old, but 4 more whales have been found that are close in age to Badu. According to the results of the researchers, they lived to be 91 years old, 135, 159 and 172 years old. In their bodies, a total of 7 harpoon tips, at least 100 years old, were found.

The last in the list of the most tenacious creatures on earth can be attributed land turtle(Testudinidae), famous for the fact that she can live for a very long time. Average age turtles reach 150 years, but it all depends on the variety. known to science old turtle lived for over 150 years. This is Advaita, who lived at the home of the English General Robert Clive before she ended up in the zoo in Calcutta, where she later spent another 130 years.

It is also impressive that at the time of the turtle's death, no one was working at the zoo from those who accepted it. The tortoise died due to a crack in its shell. The results of the study by scientists of the shell after her death confirmed that the age of that turtle was about 250 years old.