8 Creatures that Can Survive the Most Extreme Environments
From birds that fly at dizzying heights to microorganisms that live at crushing depths,
here are 8 creatures that can survive the most extreme environments:
Number 8 Ruppell’s Vulture This critically endangered vulture is native
to central Africa and holds the distinction of being the world’s highest flying, bird.
Ruppell’s Vulture can cruise at heights of up to 37,000 feet, which is just short
of the cruising altitude for commercial airliners.
In fact, a Ruppell’s vulture was confirmed to have been ingested by a jet engine travelling
at that altitude, above the Ivory Coast, on November 29, 1973.
The air at such dizzying heights is very thin, but these creatures are able to survive the
environment as they have a special protein in their blood which allows for highly efficient
oxygen absorption.
They aren’t very fast, with an average speed of 22 miles per hour.
However, they are known to fly up to 7 hours every day and travel as far as 100 miles from
their nest to search for food.
Number 7 Wood Frogs Wood frogs are abundant in the forests of
Canada and north-eastern USA.
These creatures are very apt at surviving in the cold.
While this adaptation alone doesn’t make them particularly outstanding, it’s worth
mentioning that wood frogs are among the few creatures that can survive being frozen alive,
only to re-emerge and resume their life cycle.
The Alaskan wood frog, for example can survive being frozen to a temperature of 3.2 Fahrenheit.
This is because the circulatory systems of wood frogs are kept functioning by antifreeze
like blood.
In fact, during the colder months, it’s not uncommon for wood frogs to become frozen
and then thaw out several times over.
Number 6 Snailfish The snailfish family is widely distributed
in the planet’s oceans with more than 30 genera and around 410 described species.
Snailfish typically have large heads, small eyes and scale-less skin that’s loose and
gelatinous.
Their bodies taper to very small tails and their primary means of locomotion consists
of large pectoral fins.
At first glance the snailfish isn’t the most impressive creature in the ocean but
it does boast an incredible record.
It’s the deepest living fish to ever be captured on film.
In May 2017, a snailfish was filmed in the Mariana Trench at a crushing depth of 26,831ft.
Its habitat is shrouded in perpetual darkness and is characterized by a pressure that’s
over 1,000 times greater than that at sea level.
It’s the type of pressure that would cause a human being’s lungs to explode instantly.
Even though the species living at such formidable depths haven’t yet been described, the name
‘ethereal snailfish’ is often used in reference to them.
Number 5 Pacific Parakeet This parakeet, native to a small area in western
Nicaragua, has chosen to colonize one of the most inhospitable habitats on Earth.
For reasons that scientists have yet to understand, this bird nests in the craters of the Masaya
volcano, in Nicaragua’s largest national park.
The real puzzling part was how the birds managed to survive the toxic gases which would kill
most animals, including humans, in a matter of minutes.
Creatures that live in the deep sea have had millions of years to develop their adaptions
but this behavior in Pacific parakeets has been observed quite recently, from an evolutionary
standpoint.
It was ultimately discovered that they dig nesting tunnels in the soft dirt of the volcanic
walls.
These tunnels measure several feet in length and end in a nesting chamber.
Number 4 Spinoloricus Cinziae This creature, which looks like something
out of a Dr. Seuss book, has a unique and rather remarkable adaptation.
Spinoloricus cinziae is the first known animal species that doesn’t require oxygen at any
point in its life.
It was discovered in the hypersaline, oxygen-depleted L’Atalante basin of the Mediterranean Sea.
Visually it looks like a tiny cup with tentacles sticking out.
According to images taken with an electron microscope, Spinoloricus cinziae has certain
cellular adaptations that enable it to live with zero oxygen.
Just like organs are part of the human body, each tasked with fulfilling specific functions,
organelles are part of the cell.
Spinoloricus gets its energy through organelles called mitochondria.
However, since Spinoloricus cinziae was discovered rather recently, scientists are still trying
to figure out its adaptations.
Number 3 Extremophiles Extremophiles are organisms that don’t just
survive but actually thrive in some of the planet’s most extreme conditions, which
are otherwise detrimental to most lifeforms.
Extremophiles are typically different species of bacteria or archaea that have become very
well adjusted to living at extremely high or low temperatures, in acid, exposed to high
amounts of radiation, in highly saline environments, at extreme pressure or in nutritionally limited
environments.
Pyrococcus furiosus, for example, is known as a hyperthermophile and has an optimum growth
temperature of 212 Fahrenheit, which would destroy most organisms.
Natronabacterium thrives at an optimum saline concentration of 20% and an optimum pH of
10.
Astrobiologists have a keen interest in studying extremophiles as their living conditions may
be similar to those on other planets.
Therefore, extremophiles might finally provide evidence of the existence of other lifeforms
in the universe.
It’s truly unbelievable what these organisms can withstand.
Paracoccus denitrificans, for example, was placed in an ultracentrifuge at speeds corresponding
to over 403,627 times (g).
It’s the type of hyper-acceleration found in the shockwaves of supernovas.
Not only did the bacteria survive, but it exhibited cellular growth.
Endospores from Bacillus subtilis can survive extreme shock and their high speed impact
limit is still unknown.
This means that, in theory, they can be transferred between planets by travelling within meteorites.
When it comes to extremophiles, however, one organism rises above the rest.
Deinococcus radiodurans is considered to be the planet’s toughest bacterium.
It’s known as a polyextremophile and can survive dehydration, cold, vacuum and acid.
It can also withstand 1,000 times more radiation than any other organism known to man.
It’s nearly indestructible and this mainly because it’s very effective in repairing
its own DNA.
Number 2 Tardigrade No list of animals living in extreme environments
would be complete without the tardigrade, also known as the water bear or moss piglet.
It’s arguably one of the most resilient creatures on Earth and may be found anywhere
from the top of the Himalayas to the deep sea, tropical rainforests and the Antarctic.
The tardigrade has a barrel-shaped body with four pairs of clawed stubby legs and a tubular
mouth with stylets, anatomical components used to pierce its food.
Even though it rarely grows to be over a millimeter in length, the tardigrade can withstand some
mind blowing conditions.
For a few minutes, it can survive temperatures as high as 304 and as low as -458 Fahrenheit.
It’s able to withstand pressure six-times greater than that of the Marianna Trench and
radiation levels that would kill a human being in minutes.
It can live without food or water for more than 30 years.
The tardigrade can withstand a combination of solar UV radiation and the vacuum of outer
space for 10 days.
It’s been theorized that it could also survive certain global mass-extinction events such
as large meteorite impacts or gamma-ray bursts.
The reason that tardigrades are nearly indestructible is largely due to a process called vitrification.
When taken out of water and dried out, tardigrades tuck in their legs and head to revert to a
cellular fortress called a ‘tun’.
In this dormant state they secrete trelahose, a simple sugar that crystalizes into almost-unbreakable
glass armor.
Tardigrades can reduce 99.9 percent of their metabolism in the tun-state and wait to be
rehydrated in a more suitable environment where they can resume foraging or reproduction.
There have been reports of tuns that were successfully re-hydrated after a hundred years.
Number 1 Chemosynthetic Organisms Chemosynthesis is the process of turning carbon
compounds and other molecules into organic compounds, without the presence of sunlight.
It’s a biochemical reaction in which hydrogen gas, methane, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, iron
or other compounds, are oxidized to act as an energy source.
Chemosynthetic organisms rely on this process to survive in some of the world’s most inhospitable
environments.
These include hydrothermal vents on the ocean bed and other deep-sea habitats that are characterized
by lack of light and extreme pressure.
As a hypothesis, this type of life process was first proposed under the name ‘anorgoxydant’
in the 19th century after a Russian scientists observed bacteria living off inorganic compounds.
‘Chemosynthesis’, as the process would later be called, was confirmed in 1977.
That’s when a deep sea submersible dove into the Galapagos Rift where it observed
tube worms and other lifeforms surrounding hydrothermal vents.
Chemosynthetic organisms are usually microscopic and include various types of bacteria or archaea.
However, larger organisms, such as the giant tube worm, have developed physical adaptations
to house chemosynthetic bacteria.
When the bacteria oxidize sulfur from the environment, they actively produce nourishment
for the worm.
This means that an entire food chain can emerge from chemosynthetic organisms in some of the
planet’s most extreme environments.
However, this isn’t the only aspect that makes chemosynthesis such an incredible process.
It may very well be the first type of metabolism to evolve on Earth.
It’s also been hypothesized that it can support life below the surface of Mars, on
Jupiter’s moon Europa and potentially other places in the solar system and beyond.
Thanks for watching!
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