By Marc Kaufman, Washington Post Wednesday, June 1, 10:00 AM
Nicknamed “worms from hell,” the nematodes, or roundworms, were found in several gold mines in South Africa,….“For a relatively complex creture like a nematode to penetrate that deep is simply remarkable,” he said.
An article introducing the subterranean nematodes, one of which was formally named Halicephalobus mephisto after the “Lord of the Underworld,” appears in Nature. H. mephisto was found in water flowing from a borehole about one mile below the surface in the Beatrix gold mine.
The research is likely to trigger scientific challenges and cause some controversy because it places far more complex life in an environment where researchers have generally held it should not, or even cannot, exist. read more.