‘Communities’ of strange, extreme life seen for first time in deep ocean

Bacterial mats that appear to be like oyster beds, ice and tube worm fields – these are some examples of the strange, over -life where a campaign observes, filmed and photographed into the deepest parts of the ocean.

A research team led by China, which dives in a human -occupied divers for the ocean trenches in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, took life paintings at depths at 9 km (5.6miles).

The deepest sea life taken before this time was 8,336m – a snail fish floating in a deep ocean trench on the shores of Japan in 2023.

These new observations Published in Nature magazine.

Although it is accepted that there will be life at these depths among marine scientists, scientists in this task say that the abundance of the animals they see from the windows of their divers is “incredible”.

Scientific discovery has been covered more than 2,500 km – the ditches ranged from 5,800 to 9.533m.

The researchers traveled in a diver called Fendouzhe, who can work at a depth of more than 10 km for a few hours at a time.

The team, directed by researchers from the Deep Marine Science and Engineering Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, discovered that creatures define as “developing communities”.

“Especially for the deep marine scientist – it is exciting to go to a place where people are not investigating.” He said. “A great opportunity to explore new things. And what we saw was quite surprising.”

Scientists photographed and filmed the things similar to the fields of maritime life, dominated by various different tube worms and mollusk species. These animals live under dark and great pressure on the field.

Without sunlight, at these depths, life is fed by chemicals leaking from the ocean base. Hydrogen sulfide and methane leak from errors or cracks in the world crust.

Scientists say they have recorded the species that have never been seen before. In future studies, they hope to find out how the bodies of “chemosynthetic” or chemical fuel creatures transform these chemicals into energy.

“They should do [also] There is a trick to adapt to life with super -high pressure, Dr Dr Megran Du added, from China’s Deep Marine Science and Engineering Institute. ” This is another question we need to answer. “

The findings are challenging “long -standing assumptions” about the potential of life in such excessive depths and pressures. They also argue that these animal communities are actually common, not extremely rarely.

The Scottish Marine Science Association, a senior scientist, said that BBC News showed the BBC News that the discovery “ecosystems directed by Metan may exist in the deepest parts of the ocean”.

And for a scientist, how did it feel to go into such extreme, pitch-black depths?

“Some people can find this scary, but I always encourage my students – look at the window at the bottom of the sea.” “You will get inspiration.”