Sound of the wind on another planet.

[FierceKitty]

Nah. Catch one, feed it steroids, then use it as a master to mould from.

"Igor! It must be in the castle somewhere. FIND IT! Now! Before it breeds!..."

[Westmarcher]

The mouth looks very symmetrical, almost as if it's engineered.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20150313-the-toughest-animals-on-earth
Perhaps it's a mini-Terminator ... 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Na - cant be, we haven't got eletronics that small yet....

[Big Insect]

I've always thought they were bloody creepy things - despite what Star Trek Beyond or Discover or whateva led us all the believe!

[Orcs]

And there's probably oodles of them within a few yards of you.

Most of them are only half a mm in size, so don't have nightmares.  (The biggest are 1.5mm..apparently.)

I think Leon should get me to make a giant one for the sci-fi range.

Cheers - Phil.

What are they?

[DecemDave]

Agreed, there's something just horribly . . . odd . . . about them. No eyes and that strange mouth(?) at the front.

Are we sure thats the front?

[Techno II]

I assume that 'folk' have watched them eating moss or lichen (or in some cases each other) under a microscope, so they'll know which end the mouth is. 

What are they?

Weird/fascinating, tiny little beasties, Mark.

Cheers - Phil.

[Big Insect]

What are they?

Apparently they are one of the oldest continuously living creatures on this planet - evolved to 'perfection' millions of years ago and just stopped, and haven't changed since.
They can live in pretty much any and all harsh environments, even vacuum - they just seem to go into a sort of dehydrated state of stasis and will revive on contact with liquid water.

As an aside - there is some pretty odd stuff on this planet - take Sea Spiders for example.
My Dad worked for NASA (in his youth) but was a marine biologist with a speciality in sea spiders. NASA even sent him to the Antarctic for 6 months to collect the biggest types - the size of dinner plates (they live very long and grow very big down under the ice - eating sponges).
Why NASA was interested in sea spiders is that if you pick one up and immediately drop it into liquid nitrogen they freeze instantly. If you then take them out and defrost them in sea water - once they are completely thawed out they just carry on as if nothing had happened - taking the next step or next mouthful of sponge!
Of course NASA were keen to understand how they did that as it might have implications for cryogenics for long-distance space flight.
My dad got 2 years worth of salary and research grant, we moved to a nice beach house in California and he got to dive under the Antarctic ice - in special thermal dry suits - but in the end he had to come clean to NASA that the stuff that was in the sea spiders blood that allowed this was so toxic to humans that you might as well have just shot the astronauts through the head - it would have been a quicker & less painful death.

But I suspect there are plenty of other wierd stuff we just dont know about 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

I'll be the first toi admit it - I know nowt 

[Techno II]

Apparently they are one of the oldest continuously living creatures on this planet - evolved to 'perfection' millions of years ago and just stopped, and haven't changed since.
But I suspect there are plenty of other weird stuff we just don't know about 

Weird stuff ?.....Sounds about right, Mark  .... For all we know, they got blasted off another planet.....In a (possibly) completely different 'solar system' and managed to survive...until they hit the third rock from our own Sun.

I still think they're awesome little b*ggers.

Cheers - Phil,

[flamingpig0]

Apparently they are one of the oldest continuously living creatures on this planet - evolved to 'perfection' millions of years ago and just stopped, and haven't changed since.

Very much like the wargamers in my local area who still play 7th edition WRG Ancients

[Big Insect]

Very much like the wargamers in my local area who still play 7th edition WRG Ancients

It's the ones still playing 5th that are a really anomaly

Like sharks - who also evolved to a 'perfect' form millions of year ago - they just keep swimming & eating, swimming & eating etc.

[DecemDave]

I've been waiting to move on from the 5th until the 7th edition was available free online. 

http://www.wrg.me.uk/WRG.net/History/OLDWRG/Ancients007.pdf 

They say it rewards generalship instead of grasp of the rule minutiae.  Where's the fun in that?

[Orcs]

Very much like the wargamers in my local area who still play 7th edition WRG Ancients

or WRG 2nd edition Renaissance

[flamingpig0]

I've been waiting to move on from the 5th until the 7th edition was available free online. 

http://www.wrg.me.uk/WRG.net/History/OLDWRG/Ancients007.pdf 

They say it rewards generalship instead of grasp of the rule minutiae. 

They lie