Author: Maria Temming / Source: Science News
Much to their surprise, scientists in Antarctica have uncovered what appear to be remnants of tiny animals in mud dredged from a lake that has been covered by a thick mantle of ice for thousands of years.
The researchers on this expedition — known as the Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access, or SALSA — are the first to sample Lake Mercer, a body of water about 600 kilometers from the South Pole. After drilling about a kilometer through the ice in late December, researchers lowered instruments that brought water and sediment up to the surface.
Looking at these samples under a microscope, the team found “some things that looked like squished spiders and crustacean-type things with legs … some other things that looked like they could be worms,” says expedition member David Harwood, a micropaleontologist at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The researchers also spotted what appeared to be the vestige of a famously durable…
The post Cryptic remains of tiny animals have turned up in an Antarctic lake appeared first on FeedBox.