Extremophiles -A Photo Gallery of Creatures at the Bottom of the Earth's Oceans
Where ever we go on our planet, even into what seems like the most hostile possible environments for life, if there is water and a source of chemical energy, life is to be found. In life at the extreme depths of the oceans, Pyrolobus fumaril, a hyperthermophile, thrives in the walls of ocean volcano vents where temperatures reach 235.4 F with the upper limit for life believed to be about 248 F.
The deep dwelling creatures displayed in the photo gallery below thrive around deep-sea vents and owe their existence to large colonies of bacteria that derive their energy frpm hydrogen sulfides -toxic compounds that flow steadily from the vents. It is a dark world independent of sunlight, oxygen or anything else we usually associate with life -a world based not on photosynthesis, but on chemosynthesis. And, we wonder if there might be life elsewhere in the Universe!
The ocean depths are mostly uncharted—only about 5 percent of the seafloor has been mapped with any reasonable degree of detail—and we know very little about the creatures that call it home. Current estimates about the number of species yet to be found vary between ten and thirty million. Posted by Casey Kazan.
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