Scientists Discover Ice-Loving Sea Anemones in Antarctica

Posted on January 16, 2014

Scientists with the Antarctic Geological Drilling (ANDRILL) Program were astonished to discover ice-loving sea anemones living beneath the Ross Ice Shelf off Antarctica. The anemones were discovered using a camera-equipped robot. The image above was taken by the robot. It shows the anemones protruding from the bottom surface of the Ross Ice Shelf.

Thousands upon thousands of the small sea anemones were found burrowed into the underside of the ice shelf. The tentacles of the anemones were protruding into the frigid water. The white anemones, a new species, were named Edwardsiella andrillae in honor of the ANDRILL program.

Frank Rack, executive director of the ANDRILL Science Management Office at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and associate professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at UNL, said in the announcement, "What started out as a engineering test of the remotely operated vehicle during its first deployment through a thick ice shelf turned into a significant and exciting biological discovery."

Scott Borg, head of the Antarctic Sciences Section in the NSF's Division of Polar Programs, says, "Just how the sea anemones create and maintain burrows in the bottom of the ice shelf, while that surface is actively melting, remains an intriguing mystery. This goes to show how much more we have to learn about the Antarctic and how life there has adapted."

The anemones measure about one inch long in their contracted state and up to three or four times longer in their relaxed state. They have about 20 to 24 tentacles, including an inner ring of eight longer tentacles and an outer ring with 12 to 16 tentacles.

A paper about the ice anemone can be found here in PLoS One. The researchers also found fish that routinely swam upside down, polychaete worms, amphipods and a creature they nickname "the eggroll." The eggroll creature was described as a "4-inch-long, 1-inch-diameter, neutrally buoyant cylinder that seemed to swim using appendages at both ends of its body."

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