Researchers have found new forms of life that are totally unkown in underwater caves in the Bahamas called “blue holes.” These caves can provide clues on how life evolved not only on Earth but possibly on alien worlds, researchers said.
The researchers, led by Tom Iliffe, a marine biologist at Texas A&M University at Galveston, examined three inland blue holes in the Bahamas and discovered that layers of bacteria exist in all of them, although the microbes are significantly in one sinkhole are significantly different from the others.
The findings that each cave has different conditions from the others and thus a different forms of life will help scientists analyze the diverse routes life might have taken on Earth, according to researchers.
“These bacterial forms of life may be similar to microbes that existed on early Earth and thus provide a glimpse of how life evolved on this planet,” Iliffe explained. “These caves are natural laboratories where we can study life existing under conditions analogous to what was present many millions of years ago.”
