Tardigrades, also called water bears, are microscopic segmented animals with eight legs. They are normally about 70 percent body water, but they can survive extreme dehydration (to just a few percent body water) for up to 10 years! After a decade you can add water and the tardigrades will start swimming around. You enter a lab and your new boss gives you five dehydrated tardigrades and asks you to demonstrate that the tardigrades are alive in their dehydrated state. How would you demonstrate this?
a. Record their movement, because movement is characteristic of all life.
b. Record their temperature, because all living organisms maintain body temperatures different from their environment.
c. Record their energy use, because all living organisms acquire and use energy.
d. None of the options listed demonstrate that the dehydrated tardigrades are alive