Near-invincible tardigrades may see only in black and white

Next time you’re looking at a rainbow, be thankful you’re not a tardigrade. While the microscopic creatures, also known as water bears, are master survivors when it comes to radiation, space or extreme temperatures (SN: 7/14/17), they may lack one way to appreciate the world they live in: the ability to see in color.

Tardigrades’ close arthropod relatives can see color and ultraviolet light. But tardigrades don’t have the same light-sensing proteins, called opsins, that arthropods do, That means they might not be able to see either visible or UV light, researchers report July 13 in Genome Biology and Evolution.

While working at Keio University Institute of Advanced Biosciences

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