As already known, the biologists of the 20th century felt
to be in an inferior "soft" position, in particular when compared with
allegedly "tougher" scientific disciplines like chemistry or physics.
This might explain the emergence and reason behind many of those myriads of
measurements and data tables collected in unending hours of painstaking microscopic
study. How on earth should one otherwise cope with the complexity of life?
Ernst Marcus, one of the best tardigrade scientists described the Macrobiotus hufelandi egg
as follows: "the diameter of the globular eggs is 72 - 90 µm without the protrusions,
with the protrusions measuring 3 - 10 µm in length [...]. The perimeter protrusion count
in one focus level is about 19 - 27" [translation from the German language by us].
The egg diameter as stated by Ernst Marcus is similar to the one noted by us above
but there is a problem with the perimeter count: we do count 30 at our egg -
so it doesn't fit perfectly into Ernst Marcus' description of the Macrobiotus hufelandi egg.
A nasty nature, isn't it? Always causing problems in taxonomy and ignoring our wishes
with respect to precision and a safer biological science!
|