• Undersea majesty: Researchers have discovered a hitherto unknown group of sea creatures, living nearly 2,000 meters beneath the southern ocean near Antarctica. Displayed above are a new type of “yeti crab,” the stocky, white, thick-clawed little fellas, as well as a pale sort of octopus. Said researcher Alex Rogers, of Oxford University: “Hydrothermal vents are home to animals found nowhere else on the planet that get their energy not from the Sun but from breaking down chemicals, such as hydrogen sulphide. The first survey of these particular vents, in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, has revealed a hot, dark, ‘lost world’ in which whole communities of previously unknown marine organisms thrive.” source

Posted by Chris Tognotti • Permalink