Animal that lives wthout Oxygen discovered

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Science Magazine reports the discovery of a multicellular organism that lives totally without oxygen, anaerobically.

ScienceShot: Animals That Live Without Oxygen
Scientists have found the first multicellular animals that apparently live entirely without oxygen. The creatures reside deep in one of the harshest environments on earth: the Mediterranean Ocean's L'Atalante basin [deep in the Mediterranean Sea] which contains salt brine so dense that it doesn't mix with the oxygen-containing waters above. http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2 ... ve-wi.html


Image Credit: R. Danovaro et al., BMC Biology

The article also explains that the microscopic multicellular animal, called Loricifera, do not have Mitochondria in their cells. Instead their organelles contain "hydrogenosomes", which utilise hydrogen instead of oxygen as a source of energy.

Article here:
The first metazoa living in permanently anoxic conditions
BMC Biology 2010, 8:30 doi: 10.1186/1741-7007-8-30
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pd ... 7-8-30.pdf

Reminds me of the Ray Bradbury Quote:
"Dad, do you think there is life on Earth?" , "No Son, don't be silly there is far too much Oxygen in its atmosphere!"

neat

this really challenges our current definition of living organisms.

this finding also implies that there is a greater possibility of extraterrestrial life, since it shows how organisms do not always need to live in the same conditions that are normally found on our planet where there is the most life.

this is so eery since who knows what will be found next.

On what evidence are they classifying this thing as an animal? It is entirely possible (from the sparse description in the article) that they have discovered a multicellular archaea rather than an anaerobic animal.

Not saying it can't be an animal, as there are examples of animals that lack mitochondria, but I would hope they put this critter through a gene sequencer and ran some detailed analyses before labeling it a metazoa.

The environment is water, right? H2=O.
Surely there is oxygen chemistry going on via enzymes or
ionic reactions to supply oxygen, because as far as I know
there is no life form on earth without oxygen; DNA cannot
even be made without it. Proteins/amino acids have oxygen,
and the genetic code is universal in the part that assembles
proteins out of amino acids. The brine itself would create
ions that form "virtual" oxygen molecules.

Very cool. This is the sort of thing that says to me that life is probably inevitable throughout the universe.

The role of oxygen in aerobic respiration is as an electron acceptor. But oxygen can also be present bound up in water, dissolved gasses (CO2), and minerals. So there was tons of oxygen in the earth's oceans (bound up as H2O and CO2) and crust even before there was gaseous oxygen in the atmosphere and dissolved in the ocean. So its not so much a matter of life in the absence of oxygen, but life in the absence of oxygen available as an electron acceptor. This is a significant find because there are multitudes of single cell microorganisms that have been discovered/identified that use alternate electron acceptors, but this is the first multi-celluar microorganism that must use alternate electron acceptors...sounds like the researchers haven't yet identified or published what electron acceptors or metabolic pathways this animal uses.

I still doubt absolutely that this creature has no O2 inside of its body,
and even more absolute doubt that there can't be any O2 in its environment.
The brine ionizes water and must create O2 molecules.

Are fish or shellfish anaerobic too? How about plankton?

Is the pH of the environment higher or lower than the rest of the sea?
My guess is its the same.
If there isn't enough energy to get enough oxygen to make Mitochondria,
there still is enough for proteins. What is alive without DNA and proteins?