First methane-sustained animals

In July 1997, Professor Charles Fisher led a team of scientists from Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA in a mini-submarine down 548 m (1,800 ft) to the Gulf of Mexico's ocean floor. Here they observed mushroom-shaped mounds of yellow and white methane ice (gas hydrates), 1.8-2.4 m (6-8 ft) across. Until now, these mounds were assumed to be too noxious to support any form of animal life. However, Fisher's team discovered large numbers of a hitherto unknown species of pink, flat-bodied polychaete worm thriving upon and burrowing into these mounds. They may be grazing upon chemosynthetic bacteria growing upon the methane ice.