Tardigrada

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Tardigrada (water bears) A phylum of very small (most less than 0.5 mm long), specialized animals, most of which live in the films of water that surround the leaves of terrestrial mosses and lichens; some are found between sand grains in marine and freshwater deposits. The body is short, plump, and cylindrical, with four pairs of ventral legs that end in claws or toes. The body is coelomate and superficially segmented, with a non-chitinous cuticle. There are 400 species

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