First oxygen-free animals found!

[grazie42]

This is rather cool:

Scientists have found the first animals that can survive and reproduce entirely without oxygen, deep on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea.

He told BBC World Service they were about a millimetre in size and looked like jellyfish in a protective shell.

The basin, 200km (124m) off the western coast of Crete, is about 3.5km (2.2m) deep and is almost entirely depleted of oxygen, or anoxic.

Considering the implications of creatures which can exist without oxygen, she said that greater study of animal-microbe interactions in the extreme environment of Earth's oceans could help answer questions about the possibility of life existing on other planets with different atmospheres.

BBC News - First oxygen-free animals found

 

[Diver0001]

Well... the first thing I did was look at the date on the article....

They apparently found these in a basin with little or no dissolved oxygen in the environment.

However, that's not to say there is no oxygen down there. Water, if I recall correctly, is 1/3 oxygen. If they found a way to separate that either chemically or electrically then they might have all the oxygen they needed.

Nevertheless, it would be very interesting to see if scientists can figure out more about their metabolism. The article says they got the eggs to hatch with no oxygen. That's pretty exciting.

If you don't mind I"m going to move this to a more appropriate forum.

R..

 

[Wayward Son]

hell, we've had O2 free critters in congress for decades...

 

[divad]

hell, we've had O2 free critters in congress for decades...

And they were elected. There must be others.

 

[Cave Diver]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Guys, this isn't The Pub. Lets save the political sidetracks for there.

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[drdiver1952]

I saw this article as well. It is very interesting, but inaccurate. There are several groups of animals that live and reproduce anaerobically, in the protozoa, the trichomonads and the parabasalids.
as well as a variety of more complex species in the nematodes, trematodes, cestodes, and even some annelids and arthropods. "Animal Life Without Oxygen". American Zoologist 1973 13(2):543-555

 

[OldNSalty]

I wonder how this will impact the search for life outside our biosphere?

 

[Wayward Son]

actually, this thread *was* in the pub when I posted to it.