Tardigrades, also known as waterbears or moss piglets, are tiny water-dwelling organisms. They're segmented, with eight legs, measure 1mm in length - and are one of the toughest creatures on the planet.

Found throughout the world, tardigrades can survive extreme pressure, such as deep underwater, and can even live in the vacuum of space for several days.

When they're frozen, the creatures enter a state called cryptobiosis, in which their metabolic processes shut down, and they show no visible signs of life.

It's a similar story when they're dried out - after being completely desiccated, they can remain in a dehydrated state for up to a decade before being revived. How they do this has been a mystery for more than 250 years.

Now, scientists believe they have found out how tardigrades survive desiccation. According to a new study published in the journal Molecular Cell, the creatures have unique genes that create tardigrade-specific intrinsically disordered proteins (TDPs).