Phylum Tardigrada

• Main Authors: Nelson, Diane R., Guidetti, Roberto, Rebecchi, Lorena
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2015
• Subjects: biodiversity; biogeography; buccal-pharyngeal apparatus; cryptobiosis; culturing; cyclomorphosis; diapause; dispersal; Ecdysozoa; encystment; gonochorism; hermaphroditism; microscopy; molting; panarthropoda; parthenogenesis; phylogeny; progenophore; quiescence; resting eggs; sexual dimorphism; water bear; Biological Sciences; Water Bears; Tardigrade
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/15592; https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-385026-3.00017-6

A sister group of the Arthropoda, the Tardigrada are micrometazoans that occupy a diversity of niches in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial habitats. Commonly called water bears because of their slow, lumbering gait, these molting lobopods have four pairs of legs, usually terminating in claws. Most...