Animal graveyard found in deeply buried Antarctic lake
Mud from Lake Mercer revealed tiny squashed creatures that resemble spiders and worms
MARIA TEMMING
FEB 27, 2019 — 6:45 AM EST
a photo showing a drill into the ice above Lake Mercer in Antarctica
Researchers drilled through a kilometer of ice above Lake Mercer in Antarctica. They found mud that contained carcasses of tiny animals resembling spiders, crustaceans, worms and water bears.
BILLY COLLINS/SALSA SCIENCE TEAM
Scientists have uncovered a big surprise from Antarctica’s Lake Mercer: the remains of tiny animals. Some looked like “squished spiders and crustacean-type things with legs,” says David Harwood. “Some other things … looked like they could be worms.”
Harwood is a micropaleontologist. He studies fossils of microscopic creatures at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He was describing animal carcasses retrieved from Lake Mercer, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the South Pole.
A thick layer of ice has topped this lake for thousands of years. In late December, researchers drilled through about a kilometer (0.6 mile) of that ice to reach the lake. The mud they dredged up from its bottom contained the animal remains. They found the tiny carcasses by examining the water and mud under a microscope.
Harwood was part of an expedition known as SALSA, which stands for Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access. Its researchers were the first to sample this deeply buried lake. In addition to the other animal carcasses, they spotted what appeared to be remnants of a water bear. Water bears, or tardigrades, are durable microscopic critters. Examining DNA from the remains will help researchers ID them.
More:
https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/animal-graveyard-found-deeply-buried-antarctic-lake