about my hope |
another fascinating bear shaped organism |
WARNING |
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ABOUT FORESTS OF ANOTHER KIND
As you may have noticed, mosses, liverworts and lichens are nice little
plants growing in many different places.
Small as they are, they have, like forests use to have, their own (microscopic)
flora and fauna. Part of it consits of animals that must be called aquatic;
they are only active when their moss is wet. Strange enough, this terrestro-aquatic
fauna is particularly rich in mosses in hot and dry places, as exposed
rocks and walls. It survives dry periods by a strategy called 'cryptobiosis'
(I shall not deal with this in detail here). This site is dedicated to
four of the main groups of these microscopic moss dwellers:
the water bears (Tardigrada) | |
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the rotifers (Rotatoria) |
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the roundworms (Nematoda) |
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the testate amoebae (Testacea) |
For feedback to martin adler via e-mail use maradl@geocities.com
Some names of people from whom I have stolen some
of the pictures: Bertolani-Dastych-Petersen-Streble
All drawings in this document ©martin adler
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