Researchers had to drill half a mile of ice to study the animals hiding deep under an Antarctic shelf.
British Antarctic Survey
While researchers drilled through half a mile of thick ice and peeked under the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf of Antarctica, they accidentally came across strange creatures hiding on a rock beneath the icy continent. Using a GoPro, a team of British Antarctic Survey polar scientists examined a rock at a depth of more than 4,000 feet and found that it was alive with strange stems.
The research, published Monday in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, took place between 2015 and 2018 and is the first to document immobile animals – three “suspension feeders” identifying the team as sponges and possibly other invertebrates. The discovery came as a surprise to scientists who had drilled through the shelf that sits against Weddell Sea.
“This discovery is one of the lucky accidents that pushes ideas in a different direction and we show that Antarctic marine life is incredibly special,” Huw Griffiths, lead author and biogeographer of the British Antarctic Survey, said in a press release.
Finding the depth of life is not uncommon in the open ocean, but 160 km inland, under the ice shelf, previous research has never discovered. stationary life. It is believed that only mobile animals occupy such a place among Antarctica because there is a severe lack of nutrients in the abyss. While the researchers found 22 individual animals, there is still much to learn.
“Our discovery raises so many more questions than it answers, such as how they got there. What are they eating? How long have they been there?” asked Griffiths.
Stems are visible to the left of the boulder, about 4,000 feet below the surface of the ice shelf.
British Antarctic Survey
The researchers suggest some guesses and suggest that the creatures may survive in the long run by ‘island hopping’ between rocks in the depths, just as creatures in the open ocean are able to ‘jump’ between hydrothermal vents and whales. They can also be at risk due to climate change and the loss of shelves.
More information about these creatures and their environment is slow. Scientists could only obtain information by drilling through the shelves, and according to the team, the total area analyzed so far is comparable to a tennis court – about 200 square meters. The ice shelf habitats cover more than 1.5 million Square kilometers.
“We’ll have to find new and innovative ways to study it and answer all the new questions we have,” Griffiths said.