A "devil worm" found 1600 metres underground in South Africa, eating bacteria and creeping underground for thousands of years.

There are countless species on Earth that share this blue planet with us, but the species we humans really know is insignificant.
and every day new discoveries always make us marvel at the uniqueness of those species.
for example, a bug we're talking about here may not be known to most people, and it has the name of the devil.
the creature, named "Devil Worm," is often found in places where other animals are hard to survive or reach.
in fact, it wasn't until 2008 that they were found in the south African gold mine a mile deep (about 1,600 meters) underground.
the small creature is a nematode, known as the deepest habitat ever found.
this record, the demon worm is likely to continue.
after all, in such a deep place, who can survive under such high temperature and pressure? What do they feed on? The devil worm's scientific name, Halicephalobus mephisto, is named after the demon in charge of hell.
after some research, scientists have finally uncovered some of the secrets of the demonworm.
for example, in order to maintain its slim figure of half a millimeter, it likes to eat bacteria.
and, since it may have been creeping beneath our feet for thousands of years, the creature has had enough time to adapt to its current ecological habitat.
but where does its strange superpower, which can withstand the heat of hell and the amazing pressures of the underworld, come from? To find a clue, scientists had to explore more deeply.
in fact, scientists at American universities have just given the demon worm another title: the first underground animal ever to complete genome sequencing.
study published this month in the journal Nature Communications showed that they carry large amounts of Hsp70 in their bodies.
Hsp70 is called a heat shock protein, and almost all life forms contain much less Hsp70.
its function is to repair heat-damaged cells.
sequencing results showed that the worm's Hsp70 gene originated from its own copy, essentially giving it multiple repeated copies until it could fully tolerate the harsh living conditions of the habitat.
the worm also carries a copy of a gene called the AIG1 gene, which is associated with the survival of cells in plants and animals. "The devil worm lives underground so it can't run away, so it has no choice but to adapt or die,"
researchers said in a press release.
we think that when they can't escape the heat, it starts copying both genes to survive.
": "These genes suggest that this demonic worm has gone through a long evolutionary process before it can finally use the "hell-like" environment as its home.
seemingly unobtrusionne nematodes have an incredible ability to adapt to changing circumstances, perhaps teaching us how to adapt to worsening climate change.
Andreas J.
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Professor Andreas Teske, who was not involved in the new study, told Discovery: 'Nematodes are considered the most tenacious multicellular organisms and occupy the least suitable habitat.
they have colonized in every hidden corner of the earth that meets the basic living conditions.
" Source: Know Not Passed By.