Extremophiles

Todays topic revolves around organisms that survive in environments that are too extreme for many people to comprehend. Imagine living in a highly toxic deepwater environment with over 200 tons of pressure bearing down on every square inch of your body (as we discussed in class). Better still: imagine living thousands of feet underground, away from the warmth of the sun and without food, clean water, or a comfortable place to sleep. Deep in the caverns of the world's most spectacular cave, Lechugilla, lives a bacteria that lives off of rocks. The previous statement seems somewhat ambiguous, but I hope you're taking it as literally as I have implied it; several species of these chemolithoautotrophic archaebacteria have evolved in the depths of the fifth deepest cave in the world. This cave isn't the only unique example of extremophile evolution. In fact, there are several other caves in the world which exhibit the spectacular evolutionary feat of life without the presence of sunlight.