Weird World
Created | Updated Mar 6, 2002
Life found 'on margin of existence'
Microbes found beneath the sea floor are pushing the boundaries of life on Earth and may hold clues to life on other worlds.
An international team of biologists and geologists are drilling into the sea floor off the coast of South America to recover live bacteria that do not need sunlight, carbon dioxide or oxygen.
They exist in such extreme conditions that the findings may hold clues to life on other worlds.
'The implications of this mission are exciting.'
said Jack Baldauf, deputy director of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) at Texas A&M University.
'Earlier voyages have found specimens of these bacteria at depths of up to 800 meters (2625 feet) below the sea floor, and we estimate that they may number between 10 and 30% of the Earth's biota.
That means that the biosphere is larger than previously thought - it doesn't just stop at the sea floor.'
Other expeditions have obtained samples of these bacteria, but so far researchers know very little about their real numbers, their diversity, or their role in the biogeochemistry of the oceans.
