Well … one for Bert (& other interested life originists) ...
Onstott's discovery of worms in Earth's depths raises questions about life in space
Quote:
Onstott's research team, which he led with Gaetan Borgonie of the University of Ghent in Belgium, recently made a startling discovery: microscopic roundworms known as nematodes living nearly two-and-a-half miles beneath the Earth's surface in several South African gold mines.
The worms are roughly a quarter of the diameter of the head of a pin. Although nematode species have been known to live as far as 20 feet below the surface, scientists generally assumed there was no reason to believe the organisms would be found anywhere near the depths of those found by Onstott's team, he noted.
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it has raised questions about not only the possibility of even more complex organisms miles below the Earth's surface, but also the likelihood of life far into space.
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.. doesn't really surprise me, but the possibility that we may have evolved from microscopic roundworms-from-hell, is a classic !
This bit is crucial as far as I'm concerned … we rarely see any thought being given to the possibility that such extremophiles may have evolved at the surface and got washed down to such depths ….
Quote:
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Onstott would also like to complete the gene sequence for H. mephisto and compare it to the genomes of closely related species found near the surface of the mines. This should give him a better sense of whether or not the nematode has adapted or evolved in the subsurface, and help him answer the pressing question of whether or not life can originate so far down, he said.
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Cheers