New species of methane-eating creature discovered 3,000 feet below the ocean

New species of methane-eating creature discovered 3,000 feet below the ocean

New species of methane-eating creature discovered 3,000 feet below the ocean During a routine research dive off the coasts of Southern California and Alaska in 2021, Occidental College professor Shana Goffredi scoured the ocean floor looking for methane seeps — deep-sea spots where methane gas bubbles up from the Earth’s crust.  After scooping up samples 3,000 feet below the surface, Goffredi and her team took them back to the lab “just to see if there was anything unusual about them.” That’s when they discovered three new species of deep-sea spiders.  In addition to living exclusively in methane seeps and hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, the Sericosura sea spiders displayed a curious behavior: They consumed methane gas.  “Sea spiders at hydrothermal vents and methane seeps are understudied,” Goffredi and her colleagues explained in the new study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Sericosura sea spiders now join the likes of other overlooked,…