Tardigrades are microscopic animals found worldwide in aquatic as well as terrestrial
ecosystems. They belong to the invertebrate superclade Ecdysozoa, as do the two major …

Given their dormancy capability (long-term resistant stages) and their ability to colonise and
reproduce, microscopic aquatic animals have been suggested having cosmopolitan …

Abstract Model organisms are widely used in research as accessible and convenient
systems to study a particular area or question in biology. Traditionally only a handful of …

Tardigrades are meiofaunal ecdysozoans that are key to understanding the origins of
Arthropoda. Many species of Tardigrada can survive extreme conditions through …

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the transfer of genes between species, has been
recognized recently as more pervasive than previously suspected. Here, we report evidence …

In this review we analyze the dormancy strategies of metazoans inhabiting “hostile to life”
habitats, which have a strong impact on their ecology and in particular on the traits of their …

Water is essential for life, but anhydrobiotic tardigrades can survive almost complete
dehydration. Anhydrobiosis has been a biological enigma for more than a century with …

Providing accurate animals' phylogenies rely on increasing knowledge of neglected phyla.
Tardigrada diversity evaluated in broad phylogenies (among phyla) is biased towards …

Background Tardigrades are renowned for their ability to enter cryptobiosis (latent life) and
endure extreme stress, including desiccation and freezing. Increased focus is on revealing …

The current state of knowledge about anhydrobiosis in tardigrades is presented. In response
to adverse environmental conditions tardigrades arrest their metabolic activity and after …