Life Is Found Thriving at Ocean's Deepest Point

Life Is Found Thriving at Ocean's Deepest Point
John Roach
National Geographic News
February 3, 2005

At the ocean's deepest point, the water pressure is the equivalent of having about 50 jumbo jets piled on top of you. Yet even here life thrives, according to scientists who have pulled a plug of dirt from the seafloor.

The sample was taken from the Challenger Deep, which is nearly 7 miles (11 kilometers) deep. The soil was packed with a unique community of mostly soft-walled, singled-celled organisms that are thought to resemble some of the world's earliest life forms.

They're called foraminifera, single-celled protists that construct shells. Protists are a kingdom of celled organisms distinct from animals, plants, and fungi. Other types of protists include algae and slime molds.

There are an estimated 4,000 species of living foraminifera. They inhabit a wide range of marine environments, mostly on the ocean bottom, though some live in the upper 300 feet (100 meters) or so of the ocean. A few species are found in fresh water and on land.

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