Extreme extremophiles: deep under Antarctic ice (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, February 16, 2021, 15:12 (1377 days ago) @ David Turell

From a deep probe:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2267737-life-found-beneath-antarctic-ice-sheet-sho...

"The inadvertent discovery of sea life on a boulder beneath an Antarctic ice shelf challenges our understanding of how organisms can live in environments far from sunlight, according to a team of biologists.

"James Smith and Paul Anker at the British Antarctic Survey drilled through the 900-metre-thick Filchner-Ronne ice shelf and dropped a camera down the hole in search of mud on the seabed. To their surprise, it revealed a boulder ringed by animals. Footage appears to show 16 sponges, accompanied by 22 unidentified animals that could include barnacles. It is the first time that immobile life like these creatures has been found beneath an Antarctic ice sheet.

***

"It isn’t yet clear whether the rock-hugging animals are new to science, how long they live – some Antarctic glass sponges are more than 10,000 years old – or how often they feed, be it once a year, a decade or a century. But there are signs that the life on this single boulder isn’t a one-off: filming also captured a single sponge on another rock nearby.

***

"The find is significant because it suggests life in Antarctica’s harshest environments is more adaptable and more diverse than thought.

“'We’ve discovered this isn’t some graveyard where a few things cling on, it’s more complicated than we thought,” says Griffiths. As ice sheets collapse in a warming world, species such as those found on the boulder may prove to be unable to respond to rapid changes.

"Learning more about how the organisms have adapted to their freezing home far from food may also give us clues about how life evolved how life evolved during a “snowball Earth” period hundreds of millions of years ago in which the planet was covered in ice during."

Comment: Just more evidence showing how tough life is, surviving errywhere..