blog#11

What if I say there is an animal who is known to be the toughest animal on earth and have survived all five mass extinctions, sounds interesting right? Tardigrades  {phylum- T ardigrada} are known to be nearly immortal and are capable of living in extreme conditions. They are microscopic animals, also known as water bears or moss piglets .   This phylum was discovered in 1773 by German scientist, Johann August Ephraim Goeze. H e named them ' little water bears ' due to their appearance like a bear. Later on, in 1776 , an Italian biologist,  Lazzaro Spallanzani  named them ' tardigrades'  which means slow steeper. This phylum consists of thousand known species as per ITIS { I ntegrated T axonomic I nformation S ystem}.   Johann August Ephraim Goeze                                        Lazzaro Spallanzani Their body consists of a head, three body seg...

  Although, unlike animals, plants do not have a nervous system or brain, they do respond to stimuli .     Plants can feel what's happening in their surroundings; they can feel our touch or when patted, and they rapidly respond to the stimuli or the way they are being treated. According to Dr. Olivier Van Aken, a researcher at the University of Western Australia, plants can even feel the stimuli of water droplets falling on leaves. Moreover, they can feel the casting shadows, insects walking around the leaves, and the blowing winds "he added". It's been said that plants can feel the vibrations of sound and can pass them on to distant animals for a response. Although there is no evidence as such. Researchers have found a change in thousands of genes when sprayed with water droplets, which basically lasted for half an hour or so. Quite interesting, right? It would be amazing to know that plants do communicate. Yes, you heard it right. Let's dive right into  this t...