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Tardigrades (/ˈtɑːrdɪɡreɪdz/),[1] known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets,[2][3][4][5] are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals.[2][6] They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them Kleiner Wasserbär ('little water bear').[7] In 1777, the Italian biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani named them Tardigrada (/tɑːrˈdɪɡrədə/), which means "slow steppers".[8]