How can 'indestructible' tardigrades[water bears] be eaten?

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Tardigrades, known for their extreme resilience, can withstand pressures up to 6000 atm, high radiation levels, and even survive in space. However, they are preyed upon by nematodes, amoebas, and other tardigrades, raising questions about how they can be killed despite their robust defenses. The discussion suggests that while tardigrades exhibit remarkable survival traits, these abilities may only activate during suspended animation. This leads to inquiries about why they do not enter this state when threatened by predators or within a predator's body. The conversation also touches on the role of digestive enzymes from predators, which may effectively harm tardigrades despite their physical resilience. Additionally, there is a mention of a review article discussing the lifespan of tardigrades, suggesting it may be closer to 10 years rather than the previously thought 100 years, though access to the article is limited for some participants.
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tardigrades[water bears] can resist pressures upto 6000 atm,can resist unbelievably high radiation levels,have even survived in space.how is it then,that it is eaten by nematodes,amoeba and other tardigrades?? to be precise,how can they be killed??-the digestive juices of other animals should have no effect on them,teeth,claws on any other physical weapon cannot harm them[an animal that can resist 6000 atm should be able to resist any physical damage].
are all these abilities activated only when tardigrades are in 'suspended animation'.if yes,why don't they go into suspended animation when they face a predator,or are in the predators body?
 
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ARAVIND113122 said:
tardigrades[water bears] can resist pressures upto 6000 atm,can resist unbelievably high radiation levels,have even survived in space.how is it then,that it is eaten by nematodes,amoeba and other tardigrades?? to be precise,how can they be killed??-the digestive juices of other animals should have no effect on them

Why? Enzymes can be wonderful little things. Do you have a reference for this?


I'd like to take a look at this article but unfortunately I don't have access. may be someone who does might comment.
http://journals.cambridge.org/actio...AB23E30BF8.journals?fromPage=online&aid=83425
 
The author says that shelf life might be closer to 10 yrs than 100 yrs. The article is a review, not original research. So if you can see its references, you might find original research there about decade-length lifetimes. A lot of them are Italian though:

Bertolani, R. (1982). Tardigradi (Tardigrada). Guide per il riconoscimento
delle specie animali delle acque interne italiane.
Quaderni CNR, Roma, AQ/1/168, 15.
 
Pythagorean said:
The author says that shelf life might be closer to 10 yrs than 100 yrs. The article is a review, not original research. So if you can see its references, you might find original research there about decade-length lifetimes. A lot of them are Italian though:

Bertolani, R. (1982). Tardigradi (Tardigrada). Guide per il riconoscimento
delle specie animali delle acque interne italiane.
Quaderni CNR, Roma, AQ/1/168, 15.

Unfortunately no. And I find this really annoying. Springer, elsevier, francis etc don't let me read an article without subscription. I'm fine with this, but they won't even let me see the references.
 
Elsevier (insert ranting and expletives on scientific publishing here).
 
Popular article referring to the BA.2 variant: Popular article: (many words, little data) https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/health/ba-2-covid-severity/index.html Preprint article referring to the BA.2 variant: Preprint article: (At 52 pages, too many words!) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.14.480335v1.full.pdf [edited 1hr. after posting: Added preprint Abstract] Cheers, Tom

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