Tardigrades, known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them Kleiner Wasserbär. In 1777, the Italian biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani named them Tardigrada, which means "slow steppers".
Echiniscus testudo is a cosmopolitan species of tardigrade.
Hypsibius is a genus of tardigrades in the class Eutardigrada.
Itaquascon is a genus of water bear or moss piglet, a tardigrade in the class Eutardigrada.
Milnesium is a genus of tardigrades. It is rather common, being found in a wide variety of habitats across the world. It has a fossil record extending back to the Cretaceous, the oldest species found so far is known from Turonian stage deposits on the east coast of the United States.
Echiniscoides sigismundi is a species of marine tardigrade. It lives in seaweeds or plates of barnacles, or more generally in algal strongholds in inter-tidal areas.
The Echiniscidae are a family of tardigrades, a phylum of water-dwelling, eight-legged, segmented micro-animals. It is one of the four families in the Echiniscoidea order. The family was named by Gustav Thulin in 1928.
Echiniscus is a genus of tardigrades in the family Echiniscidae. The genus was named and described by Karl August Sigismund Schultze in 1840.
Parechiniscus is a genus of tardigrades in the family Echiniscidae. It was named and described by Lucien Cuénot in 1926.
Bryodelphax is a genus of tardigrades in the family Echiniscidae. The genus was first described by Gustav Thulin in 1928.
Hypechiniscus is a genus of tardigrades in the family Echiniscidae. It was named and described by Gustav Thulin in 1928.
Mopsechiniscus is a genus of terrestrial tardigrades in the family Echiniscidae. It was named and described by Eveline Du Bois-Reymond Marcus in 1944.
Antechiniscus is a genus of tardigrade in the family Echiniscidae. The genus was first described by Reinhardt Kristensen in 1987.
Testechiniscus is a genus of tardigrades in the family Echiniscidae. The genus was named and described by Reinhardt Kristensen in 1987.
Bryochoerus intermedius is a species of tardigrade of the family Echiniscidae. It is one of two species of the genus Bryochoerus. The species was first described by James Murray in 1910 as Echiniscus intermedius.
Bryochoerus is a genus of tardigrades in the family Echiniscidae.
Proechiniscus hanneae is a species of tardigrade. It is the only species of Proechiniscus, a genus within the family Echiniscidae.
Novechiniscus armadilloides is a species of terrestrial tardigrade. It is the only species of the genus Novechiniscus, which belongs to the family Echiniscidae. The species is endemic to the United States in the state of Utah.
Echinscus viridianus is a species of tardigrade in the family Echiniscidae. The species has been found in the United States and in the Azores Islands in the North Atlantic. It was first described by Giovanni Pilato, Paulo Fontoura and Oscar Lisi in 2007. The body length of Echiniscus viridianus lies between 175 and 310 µm.
Macrobiotus is a genus of tardigrade consisting of about 100 species.
