Sophia Zhukova - Remains of ancient life found under the Antarctic ice

Scientists have discovered in the subglacial lake Mercer in Antarctica preserved remains of tiny animals buried under a kilometer of ice.
The Mercer Ice Lake is a freshwater body of water located at a depth of 1067 meters below the Willans Glacier Plain on a stretch of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Lake Mercer covers 166 square kilometers — twice the size of Manhattan. The depth of the lake is estimated at 10-15 meters, and even at low temperatures, the water does not freeze due to the strong pressure of ice.
Only recently, an international team of scientists from the SALSA project managed to drill a well and reach the lake’s waters in order to study the possible microflora of the reservoir. SALSA researchers used a hot water drill to drill a kilometer of ice and create a well with a diameter of only 60 centimeters. The first discoveries were the remains of diamate and photosynthetic algae that lived on Earth millions of years ago. However, another discovery turned out to be amazing - in the lake they found the shells of tiny tardigrade crustaceans (or water bear).
According to David Harwood, a micropalleontologist from the University of Nebraska, these ancient creatures became extinct long ago, and their shells remained, “like fallen leaves in the fall.”

It's really interesting to learn about mysteries and wonders of the past. Everyday people are still finding all these "new-old" things. It is really interesting and hard job. I think it can bring us a lot of new questions every day, but also it helps us to understands and get answers for a lot of things too. This job is really important because without knowing what was in the past we can never know the truth about current live.

http://m.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/science/remains-of-ancient-life-found-beneath-antarctic-ice/article/541287