The world’s first sketch of a tardigrade, drawn in 1773 – GIGAZINE

TardigradesTardigrades are collectively called Tardigrades because they move slowly on eight short, thick legs, and because their shape resembles a bear.TardigradesNatalie Laurence, a researcher and author with a master’s degree in natural sciences and a doctorate in the history and philosophy of science, explains the first recorded sketch of the tardigrade, from 1773, which is known for its high resilience.

Among the Moss Piglets: The First Image of a Tardigrade (1773) — The Public Domain Review
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/tardigrade/

Tardigrades are tiny animals measuring 50 micrometers to 1.7 millimeters in size, but they have a physical resilience that is hard to imagine given their small size. Tardigrades become metabolically inactive when exposed to harsh environments such as cold and dryness.CryptobiosisThey are also known to exhibit xerosis (anhydrobiosis), which allows them to survive extreme temperatures and pressure, levels of radiation that would kill most living organisms, and long periods of desiccation and lack of oxygen. As a result, some 1,300 species of tardigrades have been found all over the planet, from the depths of the ocean to tropical rainforests and Antarctica.

Tardigrades can survive being shot at 825 meters per second – GIGAZINE

According to Lawrence, the first record of tardigrades was published in 1773 by the German pastor, Rev. Johann August Ephraim Gade. Gade became fascinated with the microscope after attending a demonstration and bought one so he could observe the tiny animals himself. It wasn’t until the 1660s that microscopy became somewhat popular as a scientific method, and early microscopes had many technical problems, such as impurities in the glass and blurred vision, but they were sufficient for observing the tiny animals.

After taking a sample from stagnant water in 1722, Gase observed the tiny animals attached to aquatic plants under a microscope. The grey creatures he found, with eight tiny legs and three claws, had never been mentioned before, so Gase thought they might be very unusual. The name “tardigrade” was given to them by an Italian biologist in 1777, but earlier Gase had called the tiny creatures that looked like little bears “little water bears.”

18th century Genevan naturalistCharles BonnetIn 1745, he published “De Insecta”, a book describing his findings on insects, and several pages of the German translation of “De Insecta” were included in Gade’s journal, which included a sketch of a tardigrade and his observations. Below is Gade’s sketch, and “Fig. 7” in the center on the right is shown as the sketch of a tardigrade.

In his description, Gaze states, “They are ‘predators’ in relation to other insects in their environment, just like tigers and lions in the African desert. The greed of some species of these small creatures is as great as that of bears and hyenas in proportion,” and points out that in the microcosm they are as fearsome as real bears. On the other hand, Gaze writes that their short legs are very unstable and clumsy for supporting the body, and that despite their sharp claws, they did not seem to have any use other than for clinging to aquatic plants.

At the end of his observations, Goethe expressed his amazement at the biological strangeness of the tardigrades, saying, “O Creator of underwater life! I marvel at the infinite variety of designs that your wisdom has used to shape in different ways all the bodies of animals, birds, fish, insects and worms!” Lawrence said, “One careful drawing of one tardigrade from Goethe’s observations conveys the mystery of these microscopic animals that have fascinated researchers ever since.”