In the mosses and lichens of the world – the in-between places, where living conditions rapidly fluctuate – lives a tiny animal with an extraordinary survival skill.

No, not tardigrades – it’s their much weirder housemate, the bdelloid rotifer.

Just like tardigrades, bdelloid rotifers can dry out almost completely and spring back to life when water returns. They can be blasted with radiation hundreds of times greater than what would kill a human, and live to tell the tale, even while their chromosomes are shattered.