Meet the Microanimals!

if you wanted to see some animals where would you go maybe to the park to find some birds and squirrels or to the woods to look for some deer or a nearby lake to see some fish those are all really good choices but did you know that you're probably already surrounded by animals right now I'm not talking about your pet dog or cat I'm talking about much smaller animals called micro animals just how smaller Micro animals they're so small you can only see them under a microscope besides being really really small micro animals are invertebrates meaning they don't have a backbone like you and I do these spineless tiny creatures have amazing qualities most micro animals can survive in harsh environments that other animals couldn't like at the very bottom of the ocean or even in outer space let's meet three of these very small and fascinating creatures say hello to micro animal number one the tardigrade tardigrades sometimes called water bears can mostly be found swimming around in droplets of water on little plants called moss where they eat things like green algae and bacteria lots of tardigrades even turn green when they eat because their bodies are transparent or see-through but even though these animals are tiny and pretty cute they're also incredibly Hardy they can survive almost anything scientists have found them living in boiling hot springs and living under ice on some of the highest mountains in the world tardigrades can live through such harsh conditions that scientists even sent a bunch of them into space where they survived inside a satellite without any air or water for more than 10 days so step aside lions and tigers and bears tardigrades are some of the toughest animals on earth let's move on to our second group of micro animals meet the mites they may look like very small insects but they're actually really just spiders and ticks because look they have eight legs mites live in lots of different places from soil to dead plants to the nest of and other animals scientists think there are almost 50,000 different kinds of mites in the world and some of them live on us one kind of Mike called the eyelash mite can live in tiny holes in our skin where hairs like eyelashes grow and sometimes these mites wiggle up to the surface to crawl around and snack on little bits of dead skin and hair that your body doesn't need anymore but eyelash mites don't bite or sting so don't worry they come in peace now it's time to meet the last group of animals than nematodes nematodes are also called round worms because when you look at them under a microscope they look like round worms and even though you've probably never seen one I'm sure you've been around a nematode or two because scientists think there are more nematodes on earth than any other kind of animal that's because much like tardigrades these worms are tough little creatures that can live almost anywhere on mountains or in deserts in the heat or the cold in the soil or in the water as long as there are bacteria to eat nematodes will be there in fact even way down at the bottom of the ocean where the pressure is too strong for most other animals to survive you'll find lots of nematodes living quite happily scientists study micro animals like tardigrades mites and nematodes because they can be found all over and these tiny creatures can teach us a lot about how animals can survive in extreme places plus experts think that there are plenty of tiny animals that haven't even been discovered yet so keep your microscope nearby you could discover the next super small supercool micro animal and if you'd like to find out more about animals big or small just let us know ask an adult to help you leave a comment or email us at kids at the scishow com thanks and we'll see you next time

Channel: SciShow Kids

Views: 516,743

Rating: 4.7771373 out of 5

Keywords: scishow, scishowkids, Jessi Knudsen, Jessi Knudsen Castaneda, Squeaks, science, kids, children, learning, education, school, animals, microscopic, tardigrades, nematodes, worms, mites, skin, eyelash, arachnids, bacteria, biology, smallest, jessi knudsen castaneda, hank green, scishow kids

Id: TSaVEEXEZnw

Length: 4min 5sec (245 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 16 2015