Regardless of whether or not one likes DIS, it was interesting to see a giant Tardigrade. This fact got me interested in learning a bit more about Tardigrades; for instance, Tardigrades are distantly related to Trilobites, Hallucinogenia, Anomalocaris, and other Dinocarids. I also had no idea that there were armored Tardigrades, or the class Heterotardigrada. When I looked at “Ripper” from DIS, it definitely has armor, so it could be placed in the class Heterotardigrada. However, I cannot place “Ripper” beyond this point; I am not an expert on Tardigrades. I appreciate any and all comments in advance.
Ha! Then it must be completely independent convergent evolution of the tardigrade form. Perhaps given enough time, all life converges to look like a tardigrade (since it is clearly the apex of evolution).
Assuming that said endoskeleton is an extremely derived trait that evolved independently within the Tardigrade lineage, is it possible it would be distinct enough to represent a separate class altogether, or more likely to be a grouping within Heterotardigrada?
Interesting question. Stemming from this one, I wonder, has anybody tried to identify all animals used to create the Alien? I have identified one, so far.
Animalia is monophyletic, and since it’s not from Earth it’s clearly not an animal. Ditto with fungi and plants. It clearly doesn’t belong to either of the single-celled lineages, so it’s a brand new domain of life.
If we assume it is an Earth animal, it’s a hexapod with an internal skeleton, so probably phylum Chordata, either a new class in subphylum Vertebrata or a new subphylum.
If it evolved the endoskeleton within the tardigrade lineage then … it’s a tardigrade. All descendants of an organism are part of the same monophyletic clades as that organism, and in this case will be phylum Tardigrada. It’d probably be a new class: given all the fundamental changes it’s undergone, I doubt we could demonstrate that it hasn’t secondarily lost a pair of limbs without genetic analysis.
Except hexapods have six legs; tardigrades, and this specimen, all have eight legs (it is more evident in the endoskeleton). Other than that, great reply!
