Single-Celled Life Found at Record Ocean Depth

Researchers from Shizuoka University have detected single-celled organisms living in the Challenger Deep, the lowest point in the Pacific Ocean. Their study appeared in Science magazine in February 2005.

The team collected sediment samples from 10,896 meters below the surface using KAIKO, a remotely operated vehicle operated by the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). The trench lies near the Mariana Islands, close to the US territory of Guam.

The organisms are foraminifera, relatives of surface-dwelling plankton that typically build hard shells. The deep-trench variety carry soft cell walls instead, living under pressure of roughly 1,100 atmospheres.

Scientists Yuko Todo, Hiroshi Kitazato, Jun Hashimoto, and Andrew Gooday estimated the Challenger Deep may have taken six to nine million years to reach its current depth. The fauna present there likely descended from populations that adapted gradually as hydrostatic pressure increased over that period.

Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in February 2005, in its own words.