The researchers had to drill eight hundred meters of ice to study the animals hidden in the depths of an Antarctic platform.
British Antarctic Survey
Drilling half a mile thick ice and peering under the Antarctic Filchner-Ronne ice shelf, researchers accidentally stumbled upon strange creatures lurking on a rock beneath the icy continent. Using a GoPro, a team of polar scientists from the British Antarctic Survey examined a rock at a depth of more than 4,000 feet and found that it was alive with alien stems.
The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science on Monday, took place between 2015 and 2018 and is the first to document immobile animals – three “hanging feeders”, which the team identifies as sponges and possibly other invertebrates. The discovery came as a surprise to the scientists, who were drilling the platform that faces the Weddell sea.
“This discovery is one of those lucky accidents that pushes ideas in a different direction and shows us that Antarctic marine life is incredibly special,” said Huw Griffiths, lead author and biogeographer for the British Antarctic Survey, in a press release.
Finding life in the depths is not uncommon in the open ocean, but 160 miles inland, under the ice shelf, previous research had never discovered any stationary life. It is believed that only mobile beasts occupy such a place under Antarctica, because it is believed that there is a great lack of nutrients in the abyssal darkness. Although the researchers found 22 individual animals, there is still much to learn.
“Our discovery raises many more questions than answers, like how did they get there? What are they eating? How long have they been there?” Griffiths asks.
The stems are visible to the left of the rock, about 1200 meters below the surface of the ice shelf.
British Antarctic Survey
The researchers make some assumptions and suggest that perhaps the creatures will survive in the long run, “jumping on islands” among rocks in the depths, just as creatures in the open ocean are able to “jump” between hydrothermal vents and waterfalls. They may also be at risk from climate change and loss of shelves.
Learning more about these creatures and their environment is slow. Scientists were only able to 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 will have to find new and innovative ways to study them and answer all the new questions that we have,” said Griffiths.