Kategorie: News
An unexpected result: zoologist Ralph Schill updates the tardigrade checklist
Tardigrades are tiny, resilient and amazingly adaptable - but their biodiversity in Germany has long been poorly researched. The last scientific inventory dates back to 1936, when 44 species were documented. Now the Stuttgart zoologist Prof Dr Ralph Schill has conducted a new survey together with Dr Rolf Schuster and counted a total of 99 species.
These fascinating creatures were first described in 1773 by Johann August Ephraim Goeze in a pond in Quedlinburg. Due to their compact shape and locomotion, he compared them to small bears - hence the name ‘water bears’. Tardigrades are known for their extraordinary ability to survive:
Tardigrades are excellent at adapting to freezing cold to space conditions and to dry droughts. They stop their internal clock and fall into a kind of deep sleep. Their metabolic activity stops completely. In this state, they do not age. ‘This adaptive capability particularly fascinates me,’ says Schill.
Schill and Schuster analysed numerous scientific papers from almost two centuries and compiled an up-to-date checklist of the tardigrades found in Germany. Of the 1,488 known species worldwide, 99 have been identified in Germany. Most of them live in mosses and lichens (91 species), while eight species are found in brackish and salt water on the German coast. Surprisingly, 24 of these species were discovered and described in Germany for the first time.
The new inventory provides important insights into the biodiversity of these microscopically small animals. Schill's work is helping to bring tardigrade research back up to date after almost a century. ‘The species found here make up around seven per cent of the world's known species. And now, for the first time in almost 100 years, we have an up-to-date overview of all tardigrades in Germany,’ summarises Schill. In view of the global decline in biodiversity, such surveys are essential for understanding changes in ecosystems.
Further information:
Wuselige Zählung (University of Stuttgart) (german article)
Dive Inside Biology Article (2012) on (german article)