Worms from hell found far below the surface of the Earth...

Worms from Hell found far below the surface of the earth...

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a study published this week in Nature, researchers Gaetan Borgonie from Ghent University in Belgium and Tullis Onstott from Princeton University announced the discovery of new nematode species living kilometers below the earth in several South African mines. Nematodes had been previously found much closer to the surface, but this discovery of deep-dwelling nematodes, or roundworms, are the first multicellular organisms to ever be found at these depths.


Halicephalobus mesphisto was named after Mesphistopheles which is the literary nickname for the Devil. It was located in a mine some 1.3 km (0.8 miles) below the surface where the temperatures reach 37C (98.6F). This was believed to be a higher temperature than most nematodes could tolerate. H. mephisto measures 0.5mm and eats films of bacteria. It was found in the Beatrix gold mine some 240 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg.

The Driefontein mines revealed two more nematode species. Plectus aquatilis and another unkown species from the Monhysterid order were located at 0.9 km (0.55 miles) below the surface at a temperature of 24C (75.2F).

The most amazing discovery came from the Tau Tona mine where researchers discovered DNA from another unknown monhysterid. This DNA was recovered from some 3.6 km (2.24 miles) below the surface where temperatures reach 48C (118.4F).

In order to rule out contamination and the possibility these nematodes were from closer to the surface, Borgonie tested the water’s chemical composition that the nematode was collected in and found levels of oxygen, sulphur, and other chemicals that were expected to have come from the source location. He used carbon dating and determined that the water had been isolated from the earth’s surface for 3,000 to 12,000 years.

More information: Nematoda from the terrestrial deep subsurface of South Africa, Nature 474, 79–82 (02 June 2011) doi:10.1038/nature09974

Since its discovery over two decades ago, the deep subsurface biosphere has been considered to be the realm of single-cell organisms, extending over three kilometres into the Earth’s crust and comprising a significant fraction of the global biosphere. The constraints of temperature, energy, dioxygen and space seemed to preclude the possibility of more-complex, multicellular organisms from surviving at these depths. Here we report species of the phylum Nematoda that have been detected in or recovered from 0.9–3.6-kilometre-deep fracture water in the deep mines of South Africa but have not been detected in the mining water. These subsurface nematodes, including a new species, Halicephalobus mephisto, tolerate high temperature, reproduce asexually and preferentially feed upon subsurface bacteria. Carbon-14 data indicate that the fracture water in which the nematodes reside is 3,000–12,000-year-old palaeometeoric water. Our data suggest that nematodes should be found in other deep hypoxic settings where temperature permits, and that they may control the microbial population density by grazing on fracture surface biofilm patches. Our results expand the known metazoan biosphere and demonstrate that deep ecosystems are more complex than previously accepted. The discovery of multicellular life in the deep subsurface of the Earth also has important implications for the search for subsurface life on other planets in our Solar System.

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Are we going to an ecosystemic hell in a handcart, maybe not...

Are we going to an ecosystemic hell in a handcart, maybe not...



First published at Qassia:





Many Greenies claim we are all going to an ecosystemic hell in a handcart. Maybe and maybe not! It all depends on who you are talking to at the time.

Some claim we are irreparably damaging or even ruining our world's fragile ecosystems, and the losers will be our grandchildren who will inherit degraded landscapes and empty seas. Maybe and maybe not!

Some claim humankind has ruined the earth in 200,000 years that has taken four billion years to develop. Maybe and maybe not! I don't believe the point of no return has yet been passed - we are listening, watching and beginning to give cognisance to the problems that are not all humankind's. Cyclical weather patterns have caused nature to run rampant as well. We are now making decisions to plan schemes to stop the damage that has occurred. We are becoming green and aware! That in itself is a start!

Some claim it would take centuries or even millenia to rectify the damage to ecosystems and earth itself. There is already evidence that nature, given time, can rectify many of humankind's follies. Jungles can grow back in a few years to where forests were destroyed through clear-felling. There is proof of this in areas such as the Amazon in South America.

This has been confirmed by a couple of researching American scientists from Yale University, Holly Jones and Oswald Schmitz, who have reportedly spent years studying attempts at repairing ecosystems that have been damaged by farming, burning, hurricanes, logging, mining,oil spills,overfishing, building power plants, trawling and polluting waterways(including half a dozen successful examples in my country of New Zealand).

Researchers such as this duo are heartened that things have gone extremely well in some instances. They have found that many ecosystems are not as fragile as some would claim; many are extremely resilient and have been successfully repaired.

About 5% of the 240 ecosystems examined have been irretrievably ruined, but many if not most have been successfully returned to their original state.

It was farming and logging ecosystems that took the longest to recover, averaging about 42 years, but aquatic ecosystems took about half that time.

Dr Jones' and Schmitz' unfashionable takehome message is reportedly that although humans will continue to screw up their environment, most of the damage can be repaired quite quickly, giving hope to humankind to transition to substainable management of global ecosystems. This does, in my opinion, give more time to deal with natural ecosystemic damage through weather and sun effects.

Acknowledgements: Bob Brockie,World of Science, NZ.