Canadian and New Zealand scientists have found living microbes buried deeper than perhaps ever before in Antarctica’s ice-free Dry Valleys. They and collaborating planetary scientists at the University of Arizona say new research “opens up the possibility of life on Mars and the possible positions within a soil where it might be found.” An international team is reporting the work in Icarus in an article titled, “Morphogenesis of Antarctic Paleosols: Martian Analogue.” According to William C. Mahaney of York a scientist at Ontario University, scientists have discovered long-lived colonies of insecticidal fungi and a common species of Penicillium bacteria at two sites in two salty soil horizons more than one to three inches (3 to 8 centimeters) beneath Antarctic surface pavement.
