SCIENCE NEWS Cryptic remains of tiny animals have turned up in an Antarctic lake
Mud from Lake Mercer revealed crushed critters that resembled spiders and worms
By
Maria Temming
5:35pm, January 18, 2019
LONG WAY DOWN Mud drawn from an Antarctic lake buried underneath a kilometer of ice contains what appear to be remnants of animals like crustaceans and water bears.
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.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cryptic-remains-tiny-animals-antarctic-lake-mercer
