Baby, it's -80 outside: Antarctic seas yield new species

A few weeks back I was in Toronto and thought what I've thought every time I've been anywhere in Canada in the last few years: "I could live here."

It's an easy thing for a hot house Florida flower to think when she has a return ticket to the tropics, when the snow new and fluffy, not slate gray and threatening to turn into menacing little street icebergs and when a Tim Hortons smaterializes in front of you every time you think "I need to get inside," (approximately every 45 seconds).

Cold - real cold - is something I've never had to deal with for long. It would probably be hilarious to watch me try.

So when I think about an expedition to Antarctica where the high temperatures sometimes reach freezing I can only imagine how driven the people are who embark on such a trek for five months, for the most human of all reasons - to have a look around.

Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey recently brought up thousands of specimens from the icy waters of the Amundsen Sea, some of which are entirely new to science. You can see some amazing pictures and find out more about their findings on my National Geographic blog post Orange octopus & more creatures found in deep Antarctic Sea.

Finds like the sea lily and bristle cage worm are truly amazing, but the determination to go that far to get them is pretty amazing in itself.

If they ever put a Tim Hoton's at the South Pole, though...I'm in.

(Top pic: Pareledone turqueti., photo from British Antarctic Survey. Bottom pic: a new species of limpet feeding off the beak of a dead octopus, British Antarctic Survey).

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