Published 16:30 IST, February 16th 2021
Scientists 'accidentally discover' life far underneath the ice shelves of the Antarctic
The discovery was made by scientists from British Antarctic Survey, who accidentally stumbled upon the stationary animals while collecting sediment samples.
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Scientists have discovered life underneath Antarctic ice shelf, where it was previously thought living things could survive. discovery was me by scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who accidentally stumbled upon stationary animals while collecting sediment samples. sponges-like animals, including several potentially unkwn species, were found under complete darkness and with temperatures of -2.2 degrees Celcius about 260 km away from open ocean.
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"Our discovery raises so many more questions than it answers, such as how did y get re? What are y eating? How long have y been re? How common are se boulders covered in life? Are se same species as we see outside ice shelf or are y new species? And what would happen to se communities if ice shelf collapsed?" Dr. Huw Griffiths of BAS said in a press release.
'Disproves previous ories'
Floating ice shelves of Sourn ocean represent greatest unexplored habitat as only area of size of a tennis court has been studied so far, of 1.5 million square kilometres of Antarctic continental shelf. This is first-ever record of a hard substrate (boulder) community deep beneath an ice shelf and it appears to go against all previous ories of what s of life could survive re.
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Life under Antarctic ice shelves came as a surprise when scientists discovered strange creatures wrapped around a boulder because living organisms become scarce furr away from open ocean due to sunlight. discovery of sponges, which is filter-feeding organism and only survive in open waters, was even more surprising when found underneath Antarctic ice shelf because y depend on food from above, which y n randomly strain from water.
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16:30 IST, February 16th 2021