Researchers have found signs of life in mud discovered under the bottom of an ice-covered lake located in Antarctica.
Experts from the British Antarctic Survey and other organizations drilled through the ice to dig up clean sediment samples found at the bottom of Lake Hodgson, which is 305 feet deep and located on the Antarctic Peninsula.
Scientists expect to better understand how life may be able to exist in some of the "harshest" locations on Earth and other planets by studying microbes in extreme environments, according to Discovery News.
The lake has a "thin" layer of ice approximately 10 to 13 feet, but thousands of years ago, it was almost 1,600 feet of ice according to experts.
The sediments set to be studied by scientists have been down there since the lake was sealed by ice.
"This is the first time microbes have been identified living in the sediments of a subglacial Antarctic lake and indicates that life can exist and potentially thrive in environments we would consider too extreme," study author David Pearce said in a press statement.
In a journal called "Diversity," Pearce and his fellow experts stated that they grew 20 cultures of microbes discovered in the highest layer of the sediment core. This proves that there are "viable extremophiles, or life that that "thrives in extreme environments," according to the journal.
They also discovered fossilized fragments of DNA from many different types of microbs that appear to have successfully adapted to Antarctica's extreme conditions, according to Discovery News.
"The top few centimeters of the drill core contained current and recent organisms which inhabit the lake, but once the core reached 3.2 meters deep, the microbes found most likely date back nearly 100,000 years," a BAS spokesman said.
Once their research is finished, scientists may also have a better understanding on the origin of life on Earth.
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