New species discovered
One of toughest creatures on Earth was found on the Antarctic coast and it’s a new species. It is a tardigrade or water bear. It’s called Mopsechiniscus franciscae and they are microscopic. They can survive any condition because they’re allowed to access a deep resting state when water isn’t present. On the coast of Victoria Land, which borders the Ross Sea, this species was collected along moss gowing on gravel during a 2011 survey. They are red and males measure about a quarter of a millimeter long with females measuring about 50 percent bigger than that.
They have tiny grains of red-brown eyespots and four pairs of legs. Roberto Guidetti of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, claims that he hopes that this animal will help them understand how life was like back when Antarctica was part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. Also, how animals reached the far southern continent. Guidetti and his teams published their discovery in the May Polar Biology.
