In 1773 the German pastor Johann August Ephraim Goeze published the first recorded observations of tardigrades, which he called kleiner Wasserbär, little water bears, because they looked like tiny bears. He found them in December 1722 among duckweed in stagnant water and noticed their clawed feet and their eggs. The name tardigrade came in 1777 from an Italian biologist who noticed their slow movement. Tardigrades are about the size of a grain of sand, and today about 1300 species are known.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.