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Discovery: Fish Live Beneath Antarctica
- zachrose 12y agoNeat. Perhaps Europa has something similar.
- virmundi 12y agoIt might, but keep in mind the history of the planet. Those fish more likely came from a species that already existed in warmer waters. Over the course of time they slowly drifted in and adapted. Then they could be shut off from the outside world and still thrive due to their earlier adaption.
- pavel_lishin 12y agoI wonder what the ethical implications would be if we found out for certain that Europa was a barren world with a salty ocean under the ice, and then dumped a few tons of marine life into it.
- dTal 12y agoI would argue that it would be our duty, given that we value life and intelligence.
- pavel_lishin 12y agoSo, are those fish residents of that area? Or did they happen to just wander in? If it's typically pitch black there, why would they still have eyes?
- zachrose 12y agoPerhaps they migrated there through evolutionary pressure, and/or there's phosphorescence that we didn't see because of our giant camera light.
- webwielder 12y agoBecause time is a continuum.
- cLeEOGPw 12y agoThat bothered me too. Perhaps there's an underground tunnel connecting that area with the ocean?
- CamperBob2 12y agoIMHO that almost has to be the case. There is no reason for anything down there to have eyes.
- Houshalter 12y agoWell if they weren't blind they definitely are now with that probe shining bright lights in their eyes. Assuming they were adapted for really low levels of light, they might just be vestigial.
- themartorana 12y agoIf anything, this is just piles on hope (for me) that we'll eventually discover life on other planets that live in conditions we originally expect to be much too harsh to support life. It seems our definition of life, or the conditions required for if to exist, are constantly challenged. From thermal tubes to 850 km from sun light, complex life forms exists in some harsh places. I'm willing to bet that we haven't even scratched the surface of the insane conditions under which life outside our understanding is able to survive and thrive.
- roadnottaken 12y agoYeah, but liquid water is probably required.
- rustyconover 12y agoNice to see Montana State University showing up in this story. Go Bobcats! The Solar Physics group has had some great work published in the past, but having the Priscu[1] group getting results like this is also amazing. Kind of funny, that they're in the College of Agriculture and working in Antarctica. [1] - http://www.montana.edu/priscu/ http://www.montana.edu/priscu/
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- doctorpangloss 12y ago> But Deep-SCINI also encountered... a handful of other marine invertebrates that the team has so far declined to describe. Why would they decline to describe some animal? That's an odd way to put it. The only reason I know that deep sea ecosystems are considered sensitive is if the presence of species suggests oil. E.g., diatom fossils.
- CamperBob2 12y agoAnother possible reason is suggested by the fact that the sentence sounded like a line from H. P. Lovecraft.
- handpanda 12y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whillans_Ice_Stream http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whillans_Ice_Stream Mentioned in the article, "feeds" the Ross Shelf from the ice on land. Has two earthquakes every day for unknown reasons.