A group of species
Water bears
Tardigrada
Tiny eight-legged animals that can briefly sleep through freezing, heat and space.
You and water bears last shared an ancestor about 580 million years ago (on 11 November, if life's history were one year).
These eight-legged micro-animals, about the size of a full stop, can dry into a sleeping ball that briefly survives cold far below freezing, short bursts of heat above boiling, and even airless open space. Amazingly, water bears are relatives of crabs, spiders and insects, and like them they must shed their tough outer covering to grow.
Most live in thin films of water in moss, lichen, damp soil and ponds, and they are found from mountain tops to Antarctica and the deep sea. Different kinds pierce bacteria, plant cells or even other water bears with needle-like mouthparts and suck out the insides.
Their superpower is drying out. As water disappears, a water bear shrivels into a dry ball and almost stops living until water returns. In that sleep-like state some kinds briefly survive cold far below freezing, great heat and even ten days in airless open space. In space, direct sunlight still kills most of them.
Crushing pressure
Some kinds survive pressures about six times greater than in the deepest ocean trenches.
Radiation shield
Some kinds make a special protein that shields their DNA from radiation damage.
Wind travellers
Some dried water bears can drift on the wind like tiny seeds and, if they land somewhere damp and suitable, start a new colony alone.