'Lost world' discovered around Antarctic vents
http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/120104.html[font face=Times,Times New Roman,Serif][font size=5]'Lost world' discovered around Antarctic vents[/font]
04 Jan 12
[font size=4]Communities of species previously unknown to science have been discovered on the seafloor near Antarctica, clustered in the hot, dark environment surrounding hydrothermal vents.[/font]
[font size=3]The discoveries, made by teams led by the University of Oxford, University of Southampton, the National Oceanography Centre, and British Antarctic Survey, include new species of yeti crab, starfish, barnacles, and sea anemones, and even an octopus probably new to science.
For the first time researchers, using a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), have been able to explore the East Scotia Ridge deep beneath the Southern Ocean where hydrothermal vents, including black smokers reaching temperatures of up to 382 degrees Celsius, create a unique environment lacking sunlight but rich in certain chemicals.
The team report their findings in this weeks PLoS Biology.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001234