Tardigrades

• Tardigrades are microscopic eight-legged animals that have been to outer space and would likely survive the apocalypse.
• Considered aquatic because they require a thin layer of water around their bodies to prevent dehydration, they’ve also been observed in all kinds of environments, from the deep sea to sand dunes.
• Tardigrades are covered in a tough cuticle, similar to the exoskeletons of grasshoppers, praying mantises, and other insects to which they are related.
• They are extremophiles, able to survive environments that most others can't. They can go up to 30 years without food or water and live at temperatures as cold as absolute zero or above boiling, at pressures six times that of the ocean’s deepest trenches, and in the vacuum of space.
• Their resiliency is in part due to a unique protein in their bodies called Dsup—short for "damage suppressor"—that protects their DNA from being harmed by things like ionizing radiation, which is present in soil, water, and vegetation.
• Another amazing survival trick is cryptobiosis, a state of inactivity triggered by a dry environment. The micro-animals squeeze all the water out of their bodies, retract their heads and limbs, roll up into a little ball, and become dormant. When conditions improve, they unfurl themselves and go about their business.