Inspired by @IceWallowCum@hexbear.net’s recent microscopy as a new hobby post.

Tardigrades known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They live in diverse regions of Earth’s biosphere – mountaintops, the deep sea, tropical rainforests, and the Antarctic. Tardigrades are among the most resilient animals known, with individual species able to survive extreme conditions – such as exposure to extreme temperatures, extreme pressures (both high and low), air deprivation, radiation, dehydration, and starvation – that would quickly kill most other forms of life. Tardigrades have survived exposure to outer space.

And no, the image is not AI. It’s a real and kinda famous photo of a common and beloved microscopic creature.