Retired Kodak worker picked moss from New York log and discovered new animal

A retired Kodak finance worker and longtime volunteer, Judy Dobles, discovered a previously unknown tardigrade species after collecting moss from a log at New York’s Cumming Nature Center and examining it under a microscope.

The species was formally recognised about a year later.

Named Mesocrista ojagwaji, it adds to the growing list of tardigrades identified in New York and highlights how much microscopic life remains to be studied.