BloodandIvory
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- Posted: Sat, 09 Mar 2013 05:31:06 +0000
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Yesterday Discover Magazine reported that Russian scientists discovered an “unclassified” form of life after analyzing water samples from an ancient lake. The samples originated from lake Vostok located about two miles below the Antarctic ice sheet.
The news was relayed via the Russian website RIA Novosti. Researchers found seven samples of the same never before encountered species of bacteria. It's DNA never matched any that of any known organisms more than 86%. Organisms that match known DNA at any percentage below 90% indicate a separate species. After building a phylogentic tree, researchers noted that the bacteria defies all of the main categories for its taxonomic domain.
“After excluding all known contaminants... we discovered bacterial DNA that does not match any known species listed in global databanks. We call it unidentified and 'unclassified' life,” said a researcher, Sergeu Bulat, from the Laboratory of Eukaryote Genetics at the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute.
Bulat eagerly awaits the arrival of more samples from Lake Vostok, currently en route by ship, for more conclusive data. Last year, studies from the oxygen concentrated lake found no lifeforms, leading some to suspect the lake was uninhabitable.
Drilling through the ice to Lake Vostok first began in 1989, and took 23 years to complete. The painstaking pace prevented contamination from the ice above. Scientists believe that the lake could have been trapped as many as 17 million years ago.
Yesterday Discover Magazine reported that Russian scientists discovered an “unclassified” form of life after analyzing water samples from an ancient lake. The samples originated from lake Vostok located about two miles below the Antarctic ice sheet.
The news was relayed via the Russian website RIA Novosti. Researchers found seven samples of the same never before encountered species of bacteria. It's DNA never matched any that of any known organisms more than 86%. Organisms that match known DNA at any percentage below 90% indicate a separate species. After building a phylogentic tree, researchers noted that the bacteria defies all of the main categories for its taxonomic domain.
“After excluding all known contaminants... we discovered bacterial DNA that does not match any known species listed in global databanks. We call it unidentified and 'unclassified' life,” said a researcher, Sergeu Bulat, from the Laboratory of Eukaryote Genetics at the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute.
Bulat eagerly awaits the arrival of more samples from Lake Vostok, currently en route by ship, for more conclusive data. Last year, studies from the oxygen concentrated lake found no lifeforms, leading some to suspect the lake was uninhabitable.
Drilling through the ice to Lake Vostok first began in 1989, and took 23 years to complete. The painstaking pace prevented contamination from the ice above. Scientists believe that the lake could have been trapped as many as 17 million years ago.
