Kauaʻi record · KCA-WOI-00039
Dipodarctus borrori
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About Dipodarctus borrori
Dipodarctus borrori is a microscopic marine tardigrade described from beach sand at Anahola Bay, Kauaʻi, by Pollock in 1995. It lives among sand grains in a marine interstitial microhabitat. The body carries four pairs of short legs, and the head bears sensory appendages rather than eye stalks.
The species differs from its close relative D. anaholiensis in several microscopic characters. Its cephalic cirri are stubby and formed in two pieces, and it has a protrusible mouth cone. On the first three leg pairs, the outermost digit is about twice the length of the other three digits. The fourth pair has a different toe arrangement, with long medial digits. These are fine digit-bearing feet, not the oversized bear-like claws commonly shown in generic water-bear artwork.
The Atlas retains the Anahola occurrence as a taxonomic source record; this does not establish current abundance or island-wide distribution. Its primary plate is a species-guided reconstruction that shows a whole organism in wet coral-sand microhabitat.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Dipodarctus borrori
- Family
- Halechiniscidae
- Order
- Arthrotardigrada
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Documented source record (1995)
- Origin
- Origin not yet resolved
- Conservation status
- Not assessed
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal description
- Dipodarctus borrori is documented in a Kauaʻi source record. Wave 01 preserves the taxon concept exactly as reported. Current accepted-name reconciliation remains open; occurrence is not represented as a 2026 observation.