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.