The Greatest Animal Ever, Period.
 

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you....

THE TARDIGRADE!!

It is the greatest thing, living or not, ever!

But wait, there's more! It's not just the cutest, cuddliest microorganism on the planet...

From Wikipedia: "Water bears are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. They can survive temperatures close to absolute zero, temperatures as high as 151°C (303°F), 1,000 times more radiation than any other animal, nearly a decade without water, and can also survive in a vacuum like that found in space." All of which I double checked myself.

'Tis greatness!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...sdujardini.jpg

WATER BEAR FOREVER!!

THIS IS MADNESS!

Lets move a few to Mars and wait a few years... just to see what happens..

My vote for greatest animal ever is still on humans.

Can tardigrade play a guitar? Paint a self-portrait? Build a house? Design a car?

Can a tardigrade love?


* * * *

But seriously, these things are truly awesome. I've never heard of them, and they look really cool!

Possibly the greatest, but the honey badger still has it beat tough wise. Sure, the waterbear will survive a nuclear war, but can it rip your scrotum off or take food from lions?
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=67649

How do you go about checking the survivability of cosmic vacuums?

Incidentally, 'tardigrade' sounds vaguely odd right there. It souds like a word for measuring temperature in units of mentally challeneged individuals?

"What's the temp in here?"
"72 Fahrenheit, 22 centigrade"
"And in tardigrade?"
"Pudding night."

umm, put them in one.

i seen this "thing" on animal planet once.

magnificent creature, it is.

i´m hanging out for this guy to release his album :D