MOSCOW, Russia - Russian scientists believe they have found a
wholly new type of bacteria in the mysterious subglacial Lake
Vostok in Antarctica, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on
Thursday, March 7. The samples obtained from the underground
lake in May 2012 contained a bacteria which bore no resemblance
to existing types, said Sergei Bulat of the genetics laboratory
at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics. "After
putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA was
found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in
the global database," he said. "We are calling this life form
unclassified and unidentified," he added. The discovery comes
from samples collected in an expedition in 2012 where a Russian
team drilled down to the surface of Lake Vostok, which is
believed to have been covered by ice for more than a million
years but has kept its liquid state. Lake Vostok is the largest
subglacial lake in Antarctica and scientists have long wanted to
study its eco-system. The