Fruit Bat Voyage of Discovery

Posted by John Blatchford Mar 16, 2009

A Fruit Bat settled on the fuel tank of Discovery just before the launch into space on 15 March 2009. Maybe the poor creature was trying to prove that bats are every bit as tough as Water Bears (Tardigrades), but he missed the point! The tardigrades were inside the spaceship until they reached their destination, and furthermore they were already in suspended animation. It appears that the bat simply became a bit more ‘space debris’.

Water Bears Crawling

Tardigrades move relatively slowly (watch YouTube video), unless, of course, they are being sent into space! There is not much need to move fast when you spend your whole life ambling between grains of sand. Presumably this way of life also determines the size of Water Bears (they are usually less than a millimetre long), and keeps them reasonably short.

Fossil Tardigrades

My blog about Beorn leggi describes the rather whimsical naming of the first fossil specimen ever found – but does not even begin to tackle the question of ‘how does an animal that usually lives in the sea between sand grains get trapped half-way up a tree in resin?’. If any reader can enlighten me with a comment about this I would be grateful!

Bats and Moles

I had not intended to write any articles about mammals for a while, having decided that my first articles in the ‘Zoology’ section would cover a few of the less well-known animal phyla. In my first four articles I stuck to this plan, but then I got side-tracked into writing about Chordates and the evolution of the vertebrates and modern scientific classification.

I just couldn’t resist mentioning the bat that tried to get into space – and a few recent questions (from my wife about how moles breathe when they are underground burrowing away feverishly) tempts me to try to answer with an article about mole adaptations. Before that, or alongside that, I will try to stick to my original plan for a bit longer. Maybe ‘Velvet Worms’ (Onychophora) next – unless any reader has a specific request.