Overwhelming exception

Biological Parallel

Tardigrades survive temperatures from -272°C to 151°C, vacuum, radiation doses 1000x lethal to humans, and pressures 6x ocean depths. But this overwhelming exception obscures the baseline: 99.9% of multicellular life dies from minor pH changes (0.3 unit shift kills most fish), temperature fluctuations (5°C above optimal kills most insects), or brief desiccation (hours without water kills most animals). Arctic ground squirrels supercool to -3°C; wood frogs survive partial freezing. Yet even these extremophiles function optimally in narrow ranges. The bdelloid rotifer survives radiation by genome shattering and reassembly—but still prefers normal conditions. Cherry-picking tardigrades while ignoring the 8.7 million species that can't survive a hot car creates dangerous overconfidence. Extraordinary adaptation is extraordinary precisely because it's rare.