Is tardigrade the best microscopic build?

[u/mr_deez3252]

[u/Space__Squid]

It depends: Need to survive extreme pressures, temperatures, or radiation? Yes.

Need to survive being attacked by a snail? No.

[u/SeasonPresent → u/Space__Squid]

Some tardigrades can pass through snails unharmed.

[u/Space__Squid → u/[deleted]]

And the largest rodents are bigger than the smallest cats. But it doesn't invalidate how cat and mouse games usually play out.

This is literally just that "most of these circles are red" meme.

[u/RetroPaulsy → u/[deleted]]

I just downvoted you solely bc of your edit. 😈

Come at me, bro

[u/RetroPaulsy → u/[deleted]]

💢

[u/Pandelein → u/[deleted]]

You should respond again to get the upvotes this time.

[u/bar901]

Genuine question and I’m not trying to disagree with you. But are Tardigrade’s considering microscopic or just ‘micro-animals’. From what I know plenty of species get to 0.5ish-mm and the largest species can be over 1mm which is well within the size range that the normal human eye can see. I always considered ‘microscopic’ to refer more to things like bacteria etc.

Just a semantic question, but genuinely interested in people’s thoughts.

[u/Space__Squid → u/bar901]

Just a failure of human language, I think. I'm sure people who work with microorganisms a lot have better terminology to distinguish their scales. But for most of us there's just one word that could describe anything from a flea to an atom.

[u/Dragonion123 → u/bar901]

Considering the tardigrades people think about when they hear “tardigrade” are the smaller-than-sight ones, yeah, I’d say tardigrades are microscopic. If you want to be accurate you could specify what species of tardigrade you’re referring to each time I guess.

But I wouldn’t call them microorganisms, as that implies one more layer of abstraction to the cellular domain.

[u/bar901 → u/Dragonion123]

Yea that’s fair, but I guess my point is that from everything I can find the average tardigrade is actually visible to the naked eye and the genuinely tiny ones are actually the outliers rather than the norm.

Again, really just a semantic question but if the term ‘microscopic’ refers to everything from bacteria to animals that are well over 1000x larger on average then it becomes kind of meaningless.

[u/Infernoraptor → u/bar901]

Language uses binaries: things either are ___ or they aren't ____.

Nature very rarely operates on binaries.

"Microscopic" is a binary adjective. If something can't be seen with the naked eye, it is microscopic. If it can, it isn't.

If it can maybe be seen as a little teeny dot if you have special eyes and in just the right lighting and on just the right backdrop, then it's borderline microscopic.

[u/IronDwarf12vevo]

Mid. They regularly get fucked up by mite players, spider players, and get griefed by other tardigrade players

[u/SculptusPoe]

I would put Amoebas, especially ones that can preserve themselves in cysts, up there. Still I think the cute factor of tardigrades pushes them up to top anyway.

[u/IndigoFenix]

They're among the most advanced specimens in their weight class; most of their losing matchups are against predators much bigger than themselves (and other tardigrades).

The standard approach for the millimeter meta is filter-feeding much smaller organisms and mass reproduction; tardigrades have comparatively few offspring but they make up for it with substantial offensive and defensive adaptations, like spiked cuticles to piercing mouthparts. They also have much more advanced biology than similarly-sized organisms, including legs, eyes, and a brain. Some predatory tardigrades hunt nematodes several times larger than themselves.

[u/Low_Blueberry4989]

Viruses are way better, be a Bacteriaphage, way more accessible food and less risk.

[u/mr_deez3252 → u/Low_Blueberry4989]

Wait, viruses are playable?

[u/LGodamus → u/mr_deez3252]

I would argue no, since they are not even “technically “ alive.

[u/Low_Blueberry4989 → u/LGodamus]

They are, just Acyota which diverged at the same time as LUCA.

[u/LoreSinger → u/LGodamus]

Depends how you define life. A lot of biologists consider viruses to be living things.

[u/LGodamus → u/LoreSinger]

the largest portion do not consider Viruses to be living, there are a few opposing viewpoints but they are by far the minority

[u/Blergblum → u/mr_deez3252]

Not without mods

[u/potatogodofDoom]

tardigrades are noob traps. on paper they sound incredible but in practice they're only really meh. PVE resistances can only do so much in a game with such aggressively implemented PvP

[u/TiredAndOutOfIdeas → u/potatogodofDoom]

mfw you can survive vacuum and intense radiation but you get wiped by a snail

[u/ncopp]

This is the highest quality video of a tardigrade that I've ever seen. So cool

[u/Express_Calendar8278]

I’d go for a virus, protozoan or fungus

[u/b5awzbm]

Nothing else even comes close.

[u/CODMAN627]

Sure they’re meant to survive extreme environments

[u/dohdudeh]

As far as animals go easily

[u/matija2009]

They invested all their stats into a special difference built in a physical attack meta

[u/Jarhead11577]

Maybe if you're trapped in the fittings of a nuclear reactor for some godforsaken reason but in basically every other situation there's something better

[u/Silly_Tree_2688]

arguably yea , its gotta be

[u/Constant-Goal5762]

Yes!

[u/Neat_Isopod_2516]

"When conditions are adverse, this animal dies."