In the vicinity of the Bahamas discovered life forms unknown to science

At the bottom of the depressions in the vicinity of the Bahamas (the so -called ...

Many of these organisms is unknown to science. Apparently, they are fed by sulfur compounds that are toxic to most other forms of life. This news should cheer those who dream about the life lurking in the darkest oceans under the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, transfers Kompyulenta.
Blue holes formed on the ground and then filled with water. The deepest of them - Dean Hole in the Bahamas (202 meters). Most - about half are smaller.
During the last glacial periods the sea level fell at times to 122 m below today's. Rains punched in the coastal caves of limestone cliffs. Many of them collapsed and filled with salt water. In their dark depths of the little oxygen and almost no light. Above the blue hole is formed from time to time ...
All this means that the blue holes exist almost in isolation from the main sources of food and the rest of the diversity of marine life. Despite this, in the inhospitable depths found a rich ecosystem, including shrimp, water mites, crustaceans, etc. Marine biologist Tom Iliff from Texas A. It turned out that at the base of the food chain are the microorganisms.
Together with graduate student Brett Gonzalez, he measured the temperature, salinity, acidity, and the level of oxygen and hydrogen sulfide in the three basins. In addition, researchers have raised from the depths and studied in the laboratory samples of bacterial mats. In one of the blue holes, he covered all the walls and a thickness of 2.5 cm, then there could be a finger otkovyrnut.
Genetic analysis by Jenn Makaladi from the University of Pennsylvania (USA ) showed that, along with species unknown to science live there and the more common micro-organisms, despite the absence of light and the need to feed on hydrogen sulfide.
Most bacteria live in the halocline - a relatively thin layer where fresh water mixes with salt. According to astrobiologist Kevin Hand, deputy director of NASA's Solar System Exploration, had not participated in this study, these conditions can be found under the surface of Europe - in those places where the cracks in the ice gets rich material is a gray volcanic eruptions another satellite of Jupiter - Io.