Post by L Roebuck on Feb 9, 2006 13:01:15 GMT -5
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Earth's final frontiers
An unexplored paradise teeming with new species has just been discovered in Papua New Guinea. But where else should we be looking? Steve Connor goes in search of the answers.
MOVILE CAVE OF ROMANIA
This cave near the Black Sea in south-eastern Romania was discovered by accident in 1986. When cavers began to examine it in detail, they were astounded by its unusual flora and fauna. To date more than 30 species have been described and all are endemic to the cave. Life in the cave relies on chemosynthetic microbes that live off the hydrogen sulphur that wells up from underground sources.
LAKE VOSTOK IN ANTARCTICA
Below 4,000m of solid ice lies the huge body of liquid water known as Lake Vostok. The largest
"underground" lake in Antarctica is 250km long, 40km wide and 400m deep. Nobody knows whether anything lives there but the US space agency Nasa and the Russian academy of sciences are planning to break through the ice to sample Vostok's water for life. If it does, it will have been isolated from the rest of the biosphere for thousands of years.
<snip>
news.independent.co.uk/environment/article344330.ece
Earth's final frontiers
An unexplored paradise teeming with new species has just been discovered in Papua New Guinea. But where else should we be looking? Steve Connor goes in search of the answers.
MOVILE CAVE OF ROMANIA
This cave near the Black Sea in south-eastern Romania was discovered by accident in 1986. When cavers began to examine it in detail, they were astounded by its unusual flora and fauna. To date more than 30 species have been described and all are endemic to the cave. Life in the cave relies on chemosynthetic microbes that live off the hydrogen sulphur that wells up from underground sources.
LAKE VOSTOK IN ANTARCTICA
Below 4,000m of solid ice lies the huge body of liquid water known as Lake Vostok. The largest
"underground" lake in Antarctica is 250km long, 40km wide and 400m deep. Nobody knows whether anything lives there but the US space agency Nasa and the Russian academy of sciences are planning to break through the ice to sample Vostok's water for life. If it does, it will have been isolated from the rest of the biosphere for thousands of years.
<snip>
news.independent.co.uk/environment/article344330.ece