tardigrade

Tardigrades (also known as water bears or moss piglets) are water-dwelling, eight-legged, segmented micro-animals. They were first discovered by the German pastor Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773. The name Tardigrada (meaning "slow stepper") was given three years later by the Italian biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani. They have been sighted from mountaintops to the deep sea, from tropical rain forests to the Antarctic.