A wide variety of animals have been found living more than a kilometre underground — far deeper than scientists used to think it was possible for life to thrive.
A new study, published recently in Nature Communications, has discovered 17 species of animals living in water trapped in rock as deep as 1.4 kilometres underground in two South African gold mines. They include:
- A wide variety of worms — flatworms, roundworms, and ringed worms related to earthworms.
- Aquatic organisms called rotifers.
- A copepod, a tiny relative of shrimp.
Some of the same species were found in both mines.
The 17 species found deep underground include a) a flatworm b) a segmented worm c) a roundworm and d) a copepod. (Borgonie et al./Nature Communications)
The discovery of such animals so deep underground "is promising for the search for life on other planets/moons in our solar system," the researchers wrote.-READ MORE -http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/deep-life-rock-kilometre-down-1.3351408
No comments:
Post a Comment