Critters found in Antarctic ice show how tenacious life is

"If life can survive here, why not on Mars or one of the ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn where water lurks beneath the frozen surface?"

March 28, 2015 03:51 am | Updated 12:23 pm IST - DECEPTION ISLAND (Antarctica):

In this Jan. 24, 2015 photo, chinstrap penguins waddle on Robert Island, in the South Shetland Islands archipelago, Antarctica.  I was last here 10 years ago, British Antarctic Surveys Peter Convey says during a rare sunny day on the island with temperatures just above freezing. And if you compare what I saw back then to now, the basic difference due to warming is that the permanent patches of snow and ice are smaller. Theyre still there behind me, but theyre smaller than they were. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

In this Jan. 24, 2015 photo, chinstrap penguins waddle on Robert Island, in the South Shetland Islands archipelago, Antarctica. I was last here 10 years ago, British Antarctic Surveys Peter Convey says during a rare sunny day on the island with temperatures just above freezing. And if you compare what I saw back then to now, the basic difference due to warming is that the permanent patches of snow and ice are smaller. Theyre still there behind me, but theyre smaller than they were. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Deep below the ice, far from the playful penguins and other animals that bring tourists to Antarctica, is a cold and barren world that by all indications should be completely void of life. But recently, scientists researching melting ice watched a 15-centimeter fish swim by. Not long after that, they saw shrimp-like creatures.

In even more remote places on the continent, areas that haven’t been exposed to sunlight for millions of years, scientists found a surprise right out of an alien movie- the DNA of a microscopic creature that looks like a combination of a bear, manatee and centipede.

Life that is simultaneously normal and weird, simple and complex thrives in this extreme environment. To the scientists who brave the cold and remoteness to find life amid the ice, it’s a source of surprise and wonder. For extreme life experts, it’s a testimony to the power of evolution. “It really shows how tenacious life is,” said Reed Scherer, a micropaleontology professor at Northern Illinois University.

Scientists look at creatures found in harsh Antarctica and ask: if life can survive here, why not on Mars or one of the ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn where water lurks beneath the frozen surface? Maybe we aren’t alone. Certainly not here.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to look around and see how extreme this environment is,” biochemist Jenny Blamey said, pointing to the black, volcanic rock covered by ice all around her on Deception Island.

“This is really like a desert, where you have extreme low temperatures,” said Blamey, research director at the Biosciences Foundation in Chile who is studying the genetic material of microorganisms, essentially microbes that can’t be seen.

When unexpected creatures are found under the ice, “you start to wonder if that couldn’t happen on an icy moon or exoplanet,” said Lisa Kaltenegger, an astronomer and director of the Institute for Pale Blue Dots at Cornell University.

Science doesn’t have those cosmic answers yet, but the mysterious fish in the darkness of Antarctica may hold clues.

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