The untimely discovery of extreme life beneath Antarctica ‘s ice shelves raises a number of questions Amannan Hindustan

Researchers suddenly found an extremely long life under Antarctic ice shelves during a research study, a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science said. At a distance of 260km from the open ocean, the researchers discovered that stationery animals were attached to a boulder on the seabed as they drilled through 900 meters of ice in the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf with their cameras on the let down.

Dr Huw Griffiths, marine biologist and lead author of the study, said the stopped animals are like sponges and possibly several previously unknown species. In a video shared by the British Antarctic Survey, Griffiths said this was a real surprise as they never expected to find animals that “feed their food from the water column so far from a food source. or daylight. ”

“This discovery is one of those unfortunate disasters that pushes ideas in a different direction and shows us that Antarctic marine life is unique and transformed into a frozen world,” said the bio- expert in a separate statement.

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The first ever record of a hard substrate community deep under an ice shelf raises more questions than it answers because the researchers don’t know how they got there, what they’ve been eating or how long they have been there. The researchers ask if this is the only species seen outside the ice shelf or if they are new species. There are also few questions about the survival of these species in case the ice shelf collapses.

The discovery seems to contradict all previous theories about what kind of life could lead to living in such a horrible state. The reliance on drilling and cameras means that, according to Griffiths, the area beneath the large floating ice shelves is perhaps one of the most recognizable habitats on Earth. But getting close to these animals and the environment remains a challenge for polar scientists.

“We don’t know what species these animals are. We do not know how they deal with these terrible situations. And the only way we can answer those questions is to come up with a new way of exploring their world, ”said Griffiths.