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Originally Posted by M54
This is a nuffy question, but could they have been transported down on mining equipment and miners boots? And then bred?
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Hi Molly;
I'd say from the last quote in my OP .. that what you say, hasn't yet been ruled out.
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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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I'm interested in the outcome of such testing, however. It seems to me that this possibility deserves a lot more investigation, in order to rule out such possibilities.
And if they have been transported from the surface, then the implications of the findings, as far as finding exo-life, would seem to be minimal.
Cheers