(Newser)
– Researchers working in Antarctica have made an unexpected discovery: colonies of stationary animals – possibly sponges and related animals – connected to the ould unda boulder beneath the ice, reports NBC. Bored by the 3,000-foot-thick ice shelf on the Filchner-Rowen ice shelf, geologists rushed to the cliff to sample silt from the ocean floor and sent a camera down. “It was a real surprise to see these animals there,” Hugh Griffiths, a marine biologist and lead author of a new study documenting the discovery, told CNN. “It’s amazing, because no one has seen this before,” he told NBC. In the past, small mobile creatures – such as fish, worms, jellyfish and crustaceans – were found under the ice. Guardian Notes. But not a static filter-feeder.
Many scientists thought it was due to complete darkness, food sources and the hostile atmosphere created by the cold temperatures. Sponges and other filter feeders survive by feeding floating materials to plants and animals. Boulder, which hosts animals, is about 150 miles from the open sea. Depending on the trends, the food they eat could be more than 900 miles away, the researchers say. “It was a real shock to meet them there, a really good shock, but we can’t do DNA tests, what they’re eating, or how old they are. We don’t even know if they are new species, but they are definitely living in a place where we wouldn’t expect them to live, “said Griffith. Guardian. (Read more stories from Antarctica.)
.
