Kodak retiree finds new animal in moss from New York log; scientists confirm it as a new tardigrade

Judy Dobles collected moss near Cumming Nature Center that led to the discovery of a new tardigrade species. (Photo: Finger Lakes Public Radio) Judy Dobles, a retired worker from Kodak’s finance department, was walking a trail at the Rochester Museum & Science Center’s Cumming Nature Center in Naples, New York, when she made a discovery too small to see with the naked eye. A longtime volunteer and citizen scientist, Dobles collected a sample of moss growing on a log and later examined it under a microscope.According to Finger Lakes Public Radio, Dobles had walked the trail hundreds of times, but she said there was always something new to find. While looking through the moss sample, she first saw the microbes she expected. Then she noticed a tardigrade that did not look like any she had seen before.The tiny animal was a tardigrade, also known as a water bear or moss piglet. But this one was different. Further research showed that it was a species that had not previously been identified. Dobles contacted Piotr Gasiorek, an assistant professor at Jagellonian University in Poland who specialises in tardigrade biodiversity, to help formally identify it.It took about a year for the d...