Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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The Realm of the Tunicates
February 19, 2008 5:44 PM
The Aurora Australis, a research ship operated by the Australian Antarctic Division, has just come back from the Southern Ocean with some remarkable findings. It lowered a robot submersible to depths of more than 6,000 feet, and found that even there, in waters off the coast of Antarctica, the ocean pulsates with life.
Up to a quarter of the species seen, according to the expedition leaders, were new to science. There were strange white spider-like creatures wafting by.
"We saw giant worms, giant crustaceans, giant sea spiders," said Martin Riddle, the head of the expedition. "In other places things scraped bare and barren by iceberg scour. So a huge diversity of life, very colorful, very rich, far exceeding any of our expectations."
A tunicate, by the way, is a delicate glass-like animal, which survives by consuming plankton. The ones in the picture above are three feet tall; much smaller versions can be found in oceans elsewhere. Sea creatures often grow unusually large in polar regions.
We've put together a slide show, which you can find HERE if you haven't seen it. And there's more HERE from the Australian government, which conducted a census of the Southern Ocean along with Japanese and French scientists.
Some of the most striking images showed -- nothing. In many places along the ship's path, the ocean floor had been scraped bare by the bottoms of passing icebergs. A reminder that this is a very alien place.
February 19, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (10)
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Absolutely fascinating! The start of a scientific process - observation, collecting data and then attempting to understand it.
Posted by: Andy Clark | Feb 19, 2008 9:49:34 PM
The surprise to me is the fact that they are giants. This would seem to indicate an abundance of food, something I would have never expected in a polar region. Interesting to say the least.
Posted by: Quietman | Feb 20, 2008 1:33:18 AM
Neat
Posted by: WDJ | Feb 20, 2008 6:10:37 AM
It's always amazing to me how much we have yet to learn about our home planet. Every day brings yet another facet of life into the limelight. And every day we learn of another "impossible" venue where life not only exists, but thrives.
Posted by: Andy | Feb 20, 2008 7:55:46 AM
Yea Andy, that just shows how arrogant we humans are. We think we know where life can exist, and anything outside that is impossible. That and apperently all life needs water. I've seen very few scientists acknowledge that life doesn't always need water, or that all life has to be carbon based. Interesting post Ned, aquatic life always fascinates me more than any other. Especially Cephalapods(which aren't in this article by the way, no worries though).
Posted by: Lawrence | Feb 20, 2008 8:51:47 AM
I can't recall anywhere on the ocean floor, including the Marianas Trench, where they haven't found life of some kind.
Posted by: Andy | Feb 20, 2008 12:00:37 PM
Note from Ned--
Glad you enjoyed the view. Andy, a quick apology if my reference to "nothing" in some places seemed too literal. In fact, the expedition found that in places recently gouged by passing icebergs, organisms were quickly growing back.
Posted by: Ned Potter | Feb 20, 2008 3:35:43 PM
Ned
Maybe that's part of the answer. Something like turning over the soil in your graden using an icicle.
Posted by: Quietman | Feb 20, 2008 5:24:28 PM
Ned, I didn't mean to mislead you. I was referring to the general venue, i.e., depth, water temperature, etc. Life always returns to where it was. Witness the resurgence of life after Mount St. Helens. When mankind exits this planet via whatever vehicle, life will return in some form or other.
Posted by: Andy | Feb 20, 2008 7:08:27 PM
Beautiful slide show, Ned! These examples show that there's soomething about life that persists in even the most inhospitable of conditions.
Posted by: chuck | Feb 21, 2008 9:08:30 AM
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