The creatures from the deep sounds like a haunting Halloween movie plot but it is the reality scientists discovered. Using custom-built cameras, researchers recently found four-inch-long, gigantic amoebas in the Mariana Trench — the deepest part of the ocean.
Plumping the ocean’s deepest area with a drop camera, the team from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego spotted thexenophyophores在寒冷的深水中，地面下方6.6英里处于惊人的范围内。
“They are fascinating giants that are highly adapted to extreme conditions but at the same time are very fragile and poorly studied,” said Lisa Levin, a deep-sea biologist and director of the Scripps Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation.
Known as some of the largest individual-celled organisms in existence,xenophyophorescan grow up to four inches. Research has shown through trapping particles from water, they can concentrate high levels of lead, uranium and mercury and are therefore likely highly resistant to large doses of heavy metals. They are also well suited for living in the dark water, low temperatures and high pressure of the deepest parts of the sea.
To reach the bottom of the ocean trench, special equipment was developed. Levin worked with Eric Berkenpas and Graham Wilhelm — Remote Imaging engineers from the National Geographic Society — to build and launch “dropcams.”
该团队使用高清摄像机和一个厚壁的玻璃球，能够构建一个可以将其降低到海底的相机，并在整个海洋重量下在高压下捕获图像。在6.6英里的深度上，上面的水会导致每平方英寸的压力超过八吨以上。
尽管有寒冷和压力，但在这些极端的深度下，生活却令人惊讶。根据日本海洋科学技术机构的Dhugal Lindsay的说法，Dropcam电影还描绘了迄今为止观察到的最深水母。
[通过Discovery News]
