Antarctic Lake Vostok buried under two miles of ice found to teem with life

Analysis of ice cores obtained from the basin of Lake Vostok, the subglacial lake that Russian scientists drilled down to in 2012, have revealed DNA from an estimated 3,507 organisms.
While the majority were found to be bacteria, many of which were new to science, there were also other single celled organisms and multicellular organisms found, including from fungi.

The diversity of life from the lake has surprised scientists as many had thought the lake would be sterile due to the extreme conditions.

Lake Vostok was first covered by ice more than 15 million years ago and is now buried 12,000 feet beneath the surface, creating huge pressures. Few nutrients were expected to be found.


it is teeming with life.


This will raise hopes that life may be found in other extreme environments on other planets. One of Jupiter's moons, Europa, for example, is covered with an icy shell that may hide a liqud ocean below where life could exist.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/antarctica/10164193/Antarctic-Lake-Vostok-buried-under-two-miles-of-ice-found-to-teem-with-life.html




they just freed The Old Ones. Where's Kurt Russel when you need him!?