New Life Form Discovered Beneath Ice of Subglacial Antarctic Lake in Russia

Grab your blowtorch and make a head count of the rest of the team: They found something buried beneath the ice — and it isn't human. 

Russian scientists discovered a new life form - a new variety of microbe - two miles underneath the ice of a subglacial Antarctic lake, researchers have reported to Russian State Media, RIA Novosti, according to CBS News. Scientists had been searching for the samples since early January and made the discovery while analyzing water samples collected after extracting an ice core from the site at Lake Vostok.

When the researchers checked the newly discovered DNA's composition against all other known bacteria in a global database, the DNA match never exceeded 86 percent - an indication that the find may truly be a new life form. As CBS News noted, DNA that comes back with a reading below 90 percent is believed adequate to recognize a new species. The bacteria was so dissimilar to known varieties, researchers weren't even able to determine its descendants.

"After putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA was found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in the global database," said Sergey Bulat, a geneticist at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics, LiveScience reported.

"We are calling this life form unclassified and unidentified," Bulat concluded.

Scientists say the new discovery may help reveal more about the rest of the environment in the subglacial lake, which has remained untouched under a thick sheet of ice for about the last million or so years.

"By learning more about the life forms that live in Vostok, that will probably teach us a bit about the lake itself," said Alison Murray, an associate research professor at the Desert Research Institute, according to LiveScience.

While the find enthralled many researchers, other scientists still cautioned not to jump any wild conclusions before more research can be conducted, and the bacteria is formally confirmed.

"If this is real, it is very exciting," said Peter Doran, a microbiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, according to LiveScience. 

"I would caution, though, that this type of 'press release' science is a little dangerous. It really needs to go through the rigor of peer review by other experts in the field before I'll jump on board," Doran said. "Having others looking at their methods and data will provide support for their conclusions."

The guarded enthusiasm of Doran's observation was echoed by other scientists such as David Pearce, a microbiologist at the British Antarctic Survey.

"It's rather tantalizing," said Pearce, The Guardian reported. "We can't read too much into it yet, but I would be surprised and disappointed if they had not found anything. This whets the appetite for what is to come."