Six hundred feet below the Antarctic ice, in subfreezing dark water, and where scientists had assumed nothing more than microbes could survive, a Lyssianasid amphipod, which is related to a shrimp, swam into view. The three inch long, orange critter parked itself on the NASA research team camera’s cable- when they were getting their first look at the underbelly of an ice sheet. When the camera was pulled up, there was also a tentacle stuck to it, which scientists believe came from a foot-long jellyfish. This marks the first time scientists have found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish existing beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet. The team consisted of several biologists from U.S. universities and the British Antarctic Survey.

“We were operating on the presumption that nothing’s there,” said NASA ice scientist Robert Bindschadler (www.news.discovery.com).

There is still no proof whether these creatures actually live in the area or if they floated in from someplace else and don't live there permanently even though the site is at least 12 miles from open seas, which gives the speculation that this distant relative of the shrimp may live permanently in that climate.    

The absence of food at the temperature the critter lives in and the creature’s inability to create its own, as compared to some microbes that can make their  food out of chemicals in the ocean, has scientists puzzled as to what the food source may be.

Even though some discoveries have been made that compare to this previous breakthrough, none have been so directly underneath the ice as this one.

“It's pretty amazing when you find a huge puzzle like that on a planet where we thought we knew everything,” said Stacy Kim of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in California, (www.news.discovery.com).

The team’s findings were presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting where the shrimp and the tentacle were part of the discussion. These marine creatures enhance theories that planets other than Earth are suitable for life, scientists said (www.csmonitor.com).