These tiny animals living in the wetlands of our planet look like a funny little thing. But while we laugh at his strange and peculiar body structure and shape, he cheats death. These funny little animals are called tardigrades, water bears or moss piglets. At first glance, these creatures may not make much of an impression given their small size and unimpressive silhouette. Soon we learn that while these creatures are fun to watch, they can survive anywhere in the world you can think of thanks to cryptobiosis. Its survival depends mainly on humidity. They can reproduce asexually and often consume their habitat, making them quite reliable. Tardigrades, meaning slow walker, are animals that grow as small as 0.1 millimeter and as large as 1 millimeter. These invertebrates have four segments with pairs of clawed legs. Tardigrades can be segmented bilaterally with a tube in a tubular body plan, giving it a digestive system that extends from the mouth to the anus. They are cephalized animals with a brain inside the head and 2 eyespots on the top of the head. Eyespots are not used for seeing or photosynthesis, but are important for identifying cool or sunny areas to prevent drying out. All of this is covered by a cuticle made of chitin produced by the animal's own epidermal layer (Wright, J. 2014). Even with all the sophisticated features that tardigrades exhibit, they still lack a circulatory and respiratory system. Moss piglets must be one of the toughest organisms on earth considering they can survive just about anything. But they thrive in water or on land, usually on bryophytes, which we learned about like mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. They also exist on lichens, which we know are also a mutual medium of papery organisms. Water bears suck fluids from the interior of bryophytes, algae, rotifers, nematodes, bacteria and fungi. Using the stilettos to hold on to their meal and the muscular pharynx now facilitate the flow of fluid (Glime, 2013, p. 8). Carnivorous species of the phylum tardigrada will go so far as to consume smaller tardigrades. Tardigrades are one of the most fascinating organisms I have ever encountered and their survival traits are a testament to what evolution can do. The small size of these organisms makes it difficult for anyone to learn about their history beyond what we can observe today under a microscope. As we knead these organisms for our own entertainment, one day we will no longer be able to survive what mother nature or man himself can throw at us and the tardigrades and cockroaches will still be there, thriving and surviving..