By: Eugene Potter
Submitted: 2010-07-26 12:42:46 | Word Count: 558
The tiny pink mite, measuring 1/100th of an inch in length, is the farthest southern living animal recorded. This little critter that looks a lot like a spider likes to eat algae and fungi. A Hawaiian museum entomologist located this mite only a short time ago, as close as 309 miles to the South Pole. This same scientist also found lichens only 266 miles from the Pole. That's as close to the Pole as life has ever been found.
There are only certain types of animals that take up permanent residence on the Antarctic continent, and they are insectoid. To find the over 56 species of arthropods that live on Antarctica, you'll need some kind of magnification. One insect you could easily see is about the size of a common horsefly. It's a wingless fly. Their lives are paused until the air temperatures reach 32 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the freezing point of water, and they resume their daily activities.
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While the continent itself is barren and lifeless, there are all manner of animals traversing the Antarctic oceans, like the giant blue whale, which dwarfs every other living creature. Using a steel chamber, scientists attempted to watch the underwater world. There were six windows available to look into the surrounding waters. The scientists took turns in the water. The sounds made by ocean life could be recorded because of the hydrophone the scientists built into the pod.
Though there weren't a lot of fish to be seen, there was a jelly fish that sported tentacles of up to thirty feet in length. The chamber did prove very interesting to local seals. They thoroughly examined the chamber. The hydrophones provided their sounds: chirps, beeps, buzzes and whistles. This was a din that hadn't ever been heard, according to one scientist.
These noises help the Weddell seals to navigate and communicate. This theory would help us understand how the seals are able to find places to surface for air and food in the dark of the Antarctic. Recordings of the various seal sounds can be investigated. Because they are outside our hearing range, some of the sounds can't be detected by humans.
Scientists don't know how Weddell seals make all their sounds. Underwater finds the seals with sealed nostrils and mouths. Scientists have used depth gauges to track seals to depths of 1,500 feet. This is a record for all mammals. One seal was able to stay submerged for over 28 minutes. This is also a record. A mother seal willingly gave samples of her milk to a scientist. This milk is extremely high in fat, and allows baby seals to gain weight very rapidly. In the space of a month and a half, a baby seal can grow fourfold.
The Antarctic seas were probed by scientists in frogman diving suits. They found red seaweed, as well as other seaweed, growing on the bottom. Five foot long worms, four foot sponges and big red and white starfish were also there.
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