Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The bright colors of Grand Prismatic Spring and Yellowstone National Park, are produced by thermophiles, a type of extremophile.. An extremophile (from Latin extremus ' extreme ' and Ancient Greek φιλία (philía) ' love ') is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e., environments with conditions approaching or stretching the limits of what ...
Tardigrades are among the most resilient animals known, with individual species able to survive extreme conditions – such as exposure to extreme temperatures, extreme pressures (both high and low), air deprivation, radiation, dehydration, and starvation – that would quickly kill most other forms of life.
Tardigrades live over the entire world, including the high Himalayas. [4] Tardigrades are also able to survive temperatures of close to absolute zero (−273 °C or −459 °F), [5] temperatures as high as 151 °C (304 °F), radiation that would kill other animals, [6] and almost a decade without water. [7]
In warm blooded animals (mammals and birds) this state is referred to as hibernation or torpor (shorter periods of inactivity between awakening); whereas a similar condition in cold-blooded ...
Tardigrades can withstand 1,000 times more radiation than other animals, [17] median lethal doses of 5,000 Gy (of gamma rays) and 6,200 Gy (of heavy ions) in hydrated animals (5 to 10 Gy could be fatal to a human). [18] Earlier experiments attributed this to their lowered water content, providing fewer reactants for ionizing radiation. [18]
For example, the GC-content levels in the coding regions of some signature genes were consistently identified as correlated with the temperature range condition when the association analysis was applied to mesophilic and thermophilic organisms regardless of their phylogeny, oxygen requirement, salinity, or habitat conditions.
The most extreme hyperthermophiles live on the superheated walls of deep-sea hydrothermal vents, requiring temperatures of at least 90 °C for survival. An extraordinary heat-tolerant hyperthermophile is Geogemma barossii (Strain 121) , [ 5 ] which has been able to double its population during 24 hours in an autoclave at 121 °C (hence its name).
Microalgae that live in snow and ice include green, brown, and red algae. Snow algae species such as Chloromonas sp., Chlamydomonas sp., and Chlorella sp. are found in polar environments. [17] [18] Some phytoplankton can tolerate extremely cold temperatures and high salinities that occur in brine channels when sea ice forms in polar oceans.