New Deep Sea Creatures ‘Challenge Current Models of Life,’ Scientists Say

The Sun powers almost all life on Earth, but chemosynthetic life is the fascinating exception. These organisms find fuel in chemical reactions, allowing them to flourish in places where the Sun doesn’t shine—like the deep sea.

Now, scientists have discovered chemosynthetic animals, such as foot-long tubeworms and mollusks, nearly six miles beneath the ocean surface, deeper than these ecosystems have ever been observed before, according to a study published on Wednesday in Nature. 

Researchers witnessed the hotspots of chemosynthetic life in person during crewed dives in the Fendouzhe submersible, which descended nearly 31,000 feet to the ocean’s deepest regions, known as hadal trenches, in the North Pacific.