700 New Species Discovered In Frozen Antarctic Waters

700 New Species Discovered In Frozen Antarctic Waters

news.yahoo.com

Carnivorous sponges, 585 new species of crustaceans and hundreds of new worms have been discovered in the dark waters around Antarctica, suggesting these depths may have been the source of much marine life, European researchers reported on Wednesday. The team, who scooped samples from as deep as 20,000 feet , found unexpectedly rich diversity of animal life. Many belong to species found around the world, notably in the Arctic, while others appear to be unique to the deepest Antarctic waters, the researchers reported in the journal Nature.

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[edit on 24-5-2007 by UM_Gazz]

It never ceases to amaze me when discoveries like this are made. 700 new species. There is so much yet to be discovered right here on earth. What do you think will be the next area where things are discovered?

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I agree, I thinks it's absolutely terrific that we can still do something so basic as to find new species on our own planet today in such quantities.

As for where next, well I think the deep oceans will continue to throw up new life for some considerable time yet, but after that think of anywhere that our natural arrogance has led us to say in the past can't sustain life.

How about deep underground and in the upper reaches of the atmosphere?

Wow! I too just posted this elsewhere! Amazing find none the less!

Originally posted by timeless test

How about deep underground and in the upper reaches of the atmosphere?

I would have to agree that this is probably where the next big discoveries will be. It seems that there is more undiscovered than we can even imagine. Hell we can ly to mars and evaluate it's surface, but we don't even know what we have here on our own planet.

I saw '700 new species' and I was quite interested, but upon reading the article, it turns out it was only 585 new ones, so I lost interest... Just kidding :p

That is really cool! I'm not surprised we are finding new species in the Antarctic, given the far different environmental conditions, but 585 is an awful lot of new speices to explore. I figure that if you want to find new species, you have the best odds in the most hostile environments on Earth, because no one looks there, and the species often can't adapt to life elsewhere, so they don't spread.

I bet that if we were somehow able to examine the ocean floor and the layers underneath, especially in remote areas like this, we would find even more extinct species that we currently know nothing about. Unfortunately for science, those places are both very hard to reach, and very expensive.

this has made my day, 700 new ones, a carnivorious sponge !?!? now thats just funny. I wish i was there when they relised what they had discovered, i think we need to stop thinking about space and start doing more about our own planet. Imagen what could be down there, could be a civiliaztion like off that movie "Abyss" (splet wrong i suspect)

Take Care, Vix

Nature never ceases to amaze me and especially how it pulls the rug out from under us when we begin to think we know most of what there is to know about our world.

I just had this terrible image of the perils of bath time with a carniverous sponge...

yeah, that's great...

more new species!!!

/sarcasm on

let's make them extinct!!!

/sarcasm off

Originally posted by lombozo
What do you think will be the next area where things are discovered?

Hopefully the Mariana Trench. It's been surveyed by several major nations, but not specifically explored for rare or un-found species. I think we need to send more expeditions to Antaritca also. There could be thousands of treasures (meaning fossils, meteorites, etc.) buried deep within the frozen tundra. I think we'll discover more about life on this planet before mankind when we begin excavation of the sea floor. Though the Mariana Trench would probably not be a good place to excavate being that it's the collision point of two tectonic plates.

5 Star Find!

A carnivorous sponge? Yikes!

Run! It's Spongebob Scarepants!!!

Intriguing...and imagine what this means to the chances for ET life on Jupiter's moons or Martian polar ice....

Kool find Lombozo.

The images are surreal, it is interesting that 'so much life' was discovered nd concentrated in such an inhospitable climate.

It has also been claimed that South Antartica is an entrance used by 4th Reich forefathers, to enter into the nether regions. Apart from the odd direct challenge, who can/will say?

Any whos, It is humbling to see man discover the unknown, to have to accept new forms of life or species such as these treasures of the deep.

It is always good practice - to operate outside of mankind's 'comfort zone' of 'existing facts', - and this discovery is also a way of replenishing existing knowledge.

Kool find Lombozo.

The images are surreal, it is interesting that 'so much life' was discovered nd concentrated in such an inhospitable climate.

It has also been claimed that South Antartica is an entrance used by 4th Reich forefathers, to enter into the nether regions. Apart from the odd direct challenge, who can/will say?

Any whos, It is humbling to see man discover the unknown, to have to accept new forms of life or species such as these treasures of the deep.

It is always good practice - to operate outside of mankind's 'comfort zone' of 'existing facts', - and this discovery is also a way of replenishing existing knowledge.

Life forms like these and other extremophiles are living proof, IMHO that life will establish itself where ever it can and further's my hope that there is life throughout the universe. Now if we could only find intelligent life on earth... besides the Dolphins that is.