| As we have already seen in a previous
chapter on tardigrade reproduction ,
males are rare among the terrestric tardigrades. As far as the Echiniscus group
is concerned, even scientists thought a long time that those males didn't exist at all.
But then, at the end of the 20th century also echiniscus water bear males
were detected.
Just click on the various regions in the image area on the left
in order to find out what might be characteristic for a tardigrade male.
The animal shown is a Macrobiotus male.
In order to preemt curious questions: the small differences between males
and females are even smaller when compared to those of the human counterparts.
Body length of the tardigrade: ca. 0.5 mm.
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