Chapter 1
Meet the moss piglets
Chapter 2
The art of playing dead
Chapter 3
Shielded from the extreme
Chapter 4
Cosmic travelers and beyond
YOUR GOAL
Master of The secret life of moss piglets
Ch 1 · Meet the moss piglets
alicecooks Moss Piglets
I'll dry up to a tiny ball and float through outer space, Then wake right up to walk around and find a mossy place!
alicecooks A specialized mouth cone containing retractable stylets punctures moss, algae, or prey before a muscular pharynx sucks out
alicecooks A chubby, hand-drawn tardigrade crawls forward on its tiny, segmented limbs.
Fun Fact
Tardigrade size: A fully grown tardigrade is so small that a single period at the end of this sentence could easily fit three of them.
Glossary
tardigrade (noun)
A microscopic, eight-legged animal noted for its exceptional resilience in extreme and hostile environments. German naturalist Johann August Ephraim Goeze first discovered these tiny, slow-moving organisms in 1773.
A microscopic, eight-legged animal noted for its exceptional resilience in extreme and hostile environments. German naturalist Johann August Ephraim Goeze first discovered these tiny, slow-moving organisms in 1773.
Quiz
How do some species of tardigrades solve the problem of their massive poop size?
Quiz
According to a 2017 study, how large can a tardigrade's poop be relative to its body length?