Strange life seen for first time in extreme depths of the ocean
Down in the pitch-black darkness, they saw beds of clams, mats of bacteria that looked like ice, and fields of strange worms called tube worms.These creatures live under very high pressure with no sunlight. They survive by using chemicals like methane and hydrogen sulfide that come from cracks in the ocean floor. This is called chemosynthesis, which means 'making energy from chemicals'.Before this trip, the deepest sea animal ever filmed was at 8,336 meters. But the team went even deeper and found more life than anyone expected living in such a dark and high-pressure environment.The scientists say they have recorded species never seen before.Dr Xiaotong Peng, one of the lead researchers, told BBC News: "It's exciting – especially for a deep sea scientist – to go to a place that human beings have not explored. "It's a great opportunity to discover new things. And what we saw was quite amazing."
Before this research it was assumed that life would struggle in such deep, dark and high pressure places under water. Professor Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Association for Marine Science, said these deep-sea areas might have entire ecosystems powered by methane. An ecosystem is a community of living things that depend on each other to survive. Methane is a gas that can come from the Earth and help some bacteria grow.Dr Megran Du, also from China's Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering says "They must [also] have a trick to adapt to life in super high pressure."That's another question we need to answer."
The submersible the team used is called Fendouzhe and can hold a crew of three. It's able to dive deeper than 10,000 meters and stay there for hours. The team onboard explored more than 2,500km of ocean trenches - about the same distance as travelling from Glasgow to Rome in Italy.Dr Du, another scientist on the team, told the BBC: "Some people might find it frightening, but I always encourage my students – look through the window at the bottom of the sea. You will be inspired."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
Philippines condemns China's rocket launch after suspected debris sparked alarm
A top Philippine security official on Tuesday condemned China's latest rocket launch, which caused suspected debris to fall near a western Philippine province. Authorities said the incident sparked alarm and posed a danger to people, ships, and aircraft. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the suspected Chinese rocket debris that fell near Palawan province Monday night, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año said. However, he added that these posed 'a clear danger and risk to land areas and to ships, aircraft, fishing boats and other vessels' near the expected drop zones. 'We condemn in no uncertain terms the irresponsible testing done by the People's Republic of China of its Long March 12 rocket which alarmed the public and placed the people of Palawan at risk,' Año said in a statement. People were alarmed after hearing loud explosions Monday night in Palawan's Puerto Princesa city and nearby towns, Año said, adding that 'local residents also saw a fireball cross the sky that later exploded causing the ground to shake.' Chinese officials did not immediately comment on Año's statement. China's official Xinhua News Agency reported that the Long March-12 rocket that lifted off Monday night from a commercial spacecraft launch site on the southern island province of Hainan successfully carried a group of internet satellites into pre-set orbit. It was the 587th mission by the Long March carrier rockets, Xinhua said, citing the launch site. It was not immediately clear if Chinese authorities notified nearby countries like the Philippines of possible debris from its latest rocket launch. Such Chinese rocket debris have been found farther away from the Philippine archipelago in the past. The Philippine Space Agency said Monday that debris from the rocket launch was expected to have fallen within two identified drop zones about 21 nautical miles (39 kilometers) from Puerto Princesa City in Palawan and 18 nautical miles (33 kilometers) from Tubbataha Reef Natural Park, an area of coral reefs in the Sulu Sea off eastern Palawan that is popular among divers and conservators. 'Unburned debris from rockets, such as the booster and fairing, are designed to be discarded as the rocket enters outer space,' the space agency said. 'While not projected to fall on land features or inhabited areas, falling debris poses danger and potential risk to ships, aircraft, fishing boats and other vessels that will pass through the drop zone.' Philippine aircraft and vessels were deployed Tuesday to search for the rocket debris, Año said. He asked the public to notify authorities if they find any piece of debris but warned them not to touch them because of possible toxic fuel residues.
The Guardian
41 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Research into Australian skinks' resistance to snake venom could streamline design of antivenoms
Australian skinks have evolved the means to resist snake venom by shutting down their muscles, suggests new research which could help to inform future treatments for snakebites. Research led by the University of Queensland has found that multiple species of Australian skink have evolved venom resistance through changes to a critical muscle receptor. In other animals, the receptor is the target of venom neurotoxins, which cause rapid paralysis and death. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Study co-author Prof Bryan Fry, who leads UQ's adaptive biotoxicology lab, said that when venomous snakes arrived in Australia 25 to 30m years ago from Asia that skinks would have been their prey, resulting in evolutionary pressure to evolve venom resistance. 'What was fascinating was that with the kind of mutations that we documented in the Australian … skinks that gave rise to resistance are the kind of mutations that we've seen in other animals outside Australia,' Fry said. Mongooses, which feed on cobras, are one such example. The researchers showed that the Australian major skink, Bellatorias frerei had the same mutation that gave the honey badger its resistance to cobra venom. The researchers looked at 47 skink species and found that 13 of these were resistant to snake venom. Of these 13 species, some had multiple types of resistance, leading the researchers to discover that the skinks had developed independent mutations conferring resistance on 25 occasions. Fry said the researchers used tissue banks from museums across Australia rather than testing venom on live skinks. Study co-author and UQ researcher Dr Uthpala Chandrasekara said in a statement: 'We used synthetic peptides and receptor models to mimic what happens when venom enters an animal at the molecular level and the data was crystal clear, some of the modified receptors simply didn't respond at all.' 'It's fascinating to think that one tiny change in a protein can mean the difference between life and death when facing a highly venomous predator. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'The more we learn about how venom resistance works in nature, the more tools we have for the design of novel antivenoms.' Dr Andrew Amey, collection manager of amphibians, reptiles and herpetology at Queensland Museum, who was not involved in the research, said that there were more than 470 currently recognised species of Australian skink, with more being discovered all the time – with little known about them. 'It is great to see research looking into how they deal with such an important predator that just might tell us more about how we can manage the effects of snakebite ourselves,' Amey said. The study was published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
The Guardian
41 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Great Barrier Reef suffers biggest annual drop in live coral since 1980s after devastating coral bleaching
The Great Barrier Reef has suffered its biggest annual drop in live coral in two out of three areas monitored by scientists since 1986, a new report has revealed. The Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims) report is the first to comprehensively document the devastating impacts of the early 2024 mass coral bleaching event – the most widespread and severe on record for the Great Barrier Reef. In the months that followed that event, scientists described a 'graveyard of corals' around Lizard Island in the north and a study recorded the death of 40% of corals at One Tree Island in the south. Aims has conducted annual in-water surveys of the world's biggest reef system since 1986, checking the health and extent of corals. Sign up: AU Breaking News email This year's survey report found that in the reef's northern section – between Cooktown and the tip of Cape York – bleaching, two cyclones and associated flooding had caused coral cover to fall by 25%. In the southern section, from Mackay to just north of Bundaberg, coral cover had fallen by 30%. The northern and southern zones suffered the highest annual drops on record. Coral cover fell by 13% in the central section, which had escaped the worst of the heat in 2024. Dr Mike Emslie, who leads the long-term reef monitoring program at Aims, said coral cover was becoming more volatile. 'It has been a pretty sobering year of surveys with the biggest impacts I have seen in the 30-plus years I have been doing this,' he said. 'This volatility is very likely a sign of an unstable system. That's our real concern. We're starting to see record highs in coral cover that quickly get turned around to record falls.' Coral bleaching describes a process whereby the coral animal expels the algae that live in its tissues and give it its colour and much of its nutrients. Without its algae, a coral's white skeleton can be seen through its translucent flesh, giving off a bleached appearance. Mass coral bleaching over large areas, first noticed in the 1980s around the Caribbean, is caused by rising ocean temperatures. Some corals also display fluorescent colours under stress when they release a pigment that filters light. Sunlight also plays a role in triggering bleaching. Corals can survive bleaching if temperatures are not too extreme or prolonged. But extreme marine heatwaves can kill corals outright. Coral bleaching can also have sub-lethal effects, including increased susceptibility to disease and reduced rates of growth and reproduction. Scientists say the gaps between bleaching events are becoming too short to allow reefs to recover. Coral reefs are considered one of the planet's ecosystems most at risk from global heating. Reefs support fisheries that feed hundreds of millions of people, as well as supporting major tourism industries. The world's biggest coral reef system – Australia's Great Barrier Reef – has suffered seven mass bleaching events since 1998, of which five were in the past decade. With relatively benign impacts from cyclones and bleaching in the five years before the 2024 event, coral cover had reached record levels in some places. But that recovery, Emslie said, was largely driven by fast-growing acropora corals that were more susceptible to heat stress. 'We had said it could all get turned around in one year and, low and behold, here we are,' he said, adding that coral cover was now mostly back in line with long-term averages. The 2024 and 2025 events were part of an ongoing global mass coral bleaching event that led to more than 80% of the planet's reefs being hit with enough heat to cause bleaching, affecting corals in at least 82 countries and territories. A study last year found ocean temperatures on the Great Barrier Reef were likely at their hottest for at least 400 years and were an 'existential threat' to the Unesco World Heritage-listed reef. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Widespread mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef was first seen in 1998 and happened again in 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025. Emslie said: 'These impacts we are seeing are serious and substantial and the bleaching events are coming closer and closer together. 'We will ultimately get to a tipping point where coral cover can't bounce back because disturbances come so quickly that there's no time left for recovery. 'We have to mitigate the root causes of the problem and reduce emissions and stabilise temperatures.' The Aims report comes a month before the federal government is due to reveal its emissions reduction target for 2035. The Albanese government promised Unesco last year it would 'set successively more ambitious emissions reduction targets' that would be 'in alignment with efforts to limit global temperature increase to 1.5C'. Last week, the Climate Change Authority, which will advise the government on what target to set, released a report that said holding warming 'as close as possible to 1.5C' was key to addressing the threats facing the reef. Richard Leck, head of oceans at WWF Australia, said the government needed to set a target consistent with 1.5C. 'This is the one action the government can take to give the reef a fighting chance.'
