Giant one-celled organisms discovered over six miles below the ocean's surface

mongabay.com ^ | October 23, 2011 | Jeremy Hance

[neverdem]

PDF version

Imagine a one-celled organism the size of a mango. It's not science fiction, but fact: scientists have cataloged dozens of giant one-celled creatures, around 4 inches (10 centimeters), in the deep abysses of the world's oceans. But recent exploration of the Mariana Trench has uncovered the deepest record yet of the one-celled behemoths, known as xenophyophores.

Found at 6.6 miles beneath the ocean's surface, the xenophyophores beats the previous record by nearly two miles. The Mariana Trench xenophyophores were discovered by dropcams, developed by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and National Geographic, which are unmanned HD cameras 'dropped' into the deep ocean to record life at the bottom.

Xenophyophore in the Galapagos Rift. Photo by: NOAA.

Previous research has shown that xenophyophores are host to a number of multicellular organisms, meaning that the Mariana Trench could be teeming with life.

"The identification of these gigantic cells in one of the deepest marine environments on the planet opens up a whole new habitat for further study of biodiversity, biotechnological potential and extreme environment adaptation," says Doug Bartlett, the Scripps marine microbiologist who organized the Mariana Trench expedition, in a press release.

Xenophyophores are the largest known single cells, and have been found in great abundance on the sea floor. But given their fragility and deep-water lives, they are incredibly difficult to study and much of their natural history remains mysterious to scientists.

Close-ups of xenophyophores obtained on previous expeditions. Photo credit: Lisa Levin (all except upper right, credit David Checkley)

"As one of very few taxa found exclusively in the deep sea, the xenophyophores are emblematic of what the deep sea offers. They are fascinating giants that are highly adapted to extreme conditions but at the same time are very fragile and poorly studied," explains Lisa Levin, director of the Scripps Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. "These and many other structurally important organisms in the deep sea need our stewardship as human activities move to deeper waters."

[Jet Jaguar]

Ping

[Doc Savage]

Check Pelosi’s vault!

[Tax-chick]

I bet you wouldn’t have gone swimming there, if you’d known.

[neverdem]

macro micro ping

[Repeal The 17th]

“...the size of a mango...”
-
A strange use of comparison.
How big is a mango?
Not something I commonly compare things to...

[Brandonmark]

[Repeal The 17th]

She was swimming 6 miles down?
What a set of lungs!

[PALIN SMITH]

A conference of lawyers?

[Lady Lucky]

Largest single cell going, is said to be the ostrich egg. Bigger than your mango.

[djf]

What a miserable existence. Way down there, so deep and dark and cold...

On the other hand, they never have to watch any of those asinine Flo progressive commercials...
Every cloud has a silver lining!

[muawiyah]

There are probably even bigger ones deeper down, particularly into the lower regions of the crust.

Rather than imagining life coming into existence in the upper reaches of the ocean, or filtering in from space, it may have simply oozed out from below and worked it's way to the top of the crust.

[bert]

-----How big is a mango?----

Roughly the size of a Mariana Trench xenophyophore

[davius]

How big is a mango?

That would 1/17th the size of a Durian. Who knew liberals could survive so deep?

[moovova]

Michael Moore eggs?

[bolobaby]

Spock was attacked by one of these once:

[little jeremiah]

I think there are also a lot of giant one celled organisms at all the Occupuke protests.

[jiggyboy]

Hit 'em before they replicate!

[Tax-chick]

Abilities unknown to ordinary humankind.

[gargoyle]

...Yea, Cousin to the blob...