Hans Roy, a geomicrobiologist from Aarhus University in Denmark and his team hauled a chunk of red colored mud from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. He did not expect any surprises but he got one. Hans and his team embarked upon a month and a half long journey to only study the chemistry of the seafloor. The goal was to determine how much oxygen it absorbs from the water up above. Roy realized that some of the expected oxygen was missing after comparing the predicted levels of oxygen to the new measurements they had pulled up. Roy and his team believe that a hidden population of microbes was living in the mud, breathing in the oxygen. This is a prime example of why we should always expect the unexpected. Life can exist even in the most unexpected. Down at the depths of the seafloor, there are hidden, ancient organisms, just barely alive.

 

 

Information obtained at www.discovermagazine.com and pictures obtained at www.discovermagazine.com and www.scientificamerican.com