WATER BEARS!!!
Tardigrades or Water Bears are near microscopic; they can be seen with low power microscopes. These tiny guys grow to about 0.5mm. They are short and stubby with 4 pairs of legs ending with claws or suction cups.
Only being discovered in 1773 by Johann August Ephraim Goeze, there have been fossils of Tardigrades dated back as far as the cretaceous period. They have survived all 5 recognized mass extinctions due to thier super survival characteristics! Scientists have reported Water Bears in hot springs in the Himalayas to the deep sea and under layers of solid ice. Tardigrades are one of the few species that can lower their metabolism to less than 0.01% of normal and can drop thier water content to 1% of normal. During this state, called cryptobiosis, they can go without food or water for 30 years; later, they can rehydrate forage and reproduce like normal! They also enter this state of "hibernation" through anhydrobiosis which allows them to survive inhospitable environments as well as unnatural extremes such as subzero temperatures or even Outer Space!!
See Octonauts, "The Water Bears"(season 3, episode 2)
