New Antarctic Species of 'Water Bear' Discovered... Feeds on Eunyungdongmul

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Junho] A new species of water bear has been discovered in Antarctica. The Korea Polar Research Institute announced on the 16th that they named the newly discovered water bear and successfully bred it in the laboratory.

The institute's extremophile exploration team found a new species of tardigrade near a glacial lake close to the King Sejong Station on King George Island, Antarctica. Tardigrades, also known as water bears or moss piglets, are animals known for their ability to survive in extreme environments. There have been reports in the academic community of tardigrade eggs hatching from 200-year-old dry moss and moss frozen for 30 years.

The research team named the newly discovered tardigrade "Dactylobiotus obimutans." They also succeeded in breeding it in the laboratory. Despite their remarkable vitality, tardigrades are difficult to artificially cultivate in lab settings. So far, only about 30 species of tardigrades have been successfully cultured, and among them, only one species was found in polar regions.

The team confirmed that the new tardigrade species primarily feeds on Antarctic rotifers and microalgae living on King George Island. Consuming rotifers is a new dietary habit for the genus Dactylobiotus, which is known as herbivorous.

The researchers also observed that tardigrades of the same species laid different types of eggs under identical conditions of temperature and food. This suggests that factors other than external environment influence egg morphology, indicating that the diversity of egg forms will be an important focus in future tardigrade research.

Jihoon Kim, a researcher at the Korea Polar Research Institute, said, "We will investigate whether the variety of egg forms is related to the survival strategies of polar water bears and apply this to frozen biology research."

Meanwhile, the results of this study were published in the international academic journal Scientific Reports.

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