The main aim of this page is to introduce the topic to intrested parties and to aknowledge any assistance and support given to this undertaking. My supervisor on this is Dr Bruce Riddoch. Roger Middleton Bsc GI Biol M Ed. Molepolole College of Education, Private Bag 08, Molepolole, Botswana.
Tardigrades are a phylum of invertebrates of uncertain phylogenetic relationship.
They are called water Bears in English as they inhabit a range of aquatic environments from the deep ocean to temporary moist lichen or moss in deserts. Tardigrades have been described as the most resistant organism known. However, they cause no known disease of crops or animals and have little impact upon the environment and so are a very neglected group. Botswana is a country from which tardigrades have not been recorded and are would be under environmental stress as the semi-dessert conditions and high temperatures lead to surface water being only availlable for a limitted number of days in the year. The tardigrades may then live lives considerably extended from the normal few months, to many years always being interupted by long spells of anabiotic stages.