FILCHNER-RONNE ICE SHELF, ANTARCTIC — Scientists are rethinking the limits of life on Earth after stumbling on a group of strange organisms living deep under a 900-meter-thick ice shelf. <br /><br />The Guardian reports that researchers accidentally found a life-bearing rock after sinking a borehole through the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf to obtain a sediment core from the seabed. <br /><br />While the rock spoiled their chances of obtaining the core, footage from a video camera captured unexpected images of organisms living far beneath an ice shelf. <br /><br />Surveys of Antarctic marine life have never previously found such stationary filter-feeders, which survive by ingesting food that falls down on them. <br /><br />It was assumed that the total darkness, the lack of food and the freezing water was too hostile for them. <br /><br />Footage of the boulder shows that it is home to at least two types of sponge, one of which has a long stem that opens into a head. <br /><br />Organisms that look like tube worms, or stalked barnacles, also appear to be growing on the rock. <br /><br />Scientists theorize the animals feed on dead plankton that is carried more than 600 kilometers by currents before reaching them.
