A 60,000 - year - sure-enough forest drown in the Gulf of Mexico may bear potential for the development of young music and ergonomics in the future – and scientists are only just beginning to understand what other secrets it may prevail .
Along the bank of a river in Alabama was once a expand bald-pated cypress tree timber . As the trees grew and died , they finally fell and become buried in peat and sediment . Over sentence , sea levels rose and covered the ancient forest far beneath the aerofoil of the sea in what would eventually become a unequalled and isolated home ground for marine organisms .
Intensifying storm systems have recently disturbed the seafloor to expose these large logarithm , which have become a bit of a Witwatersrand - like marine ecosystem home to Mrs. Henry Wood - eat “ shipworms , ” which are technically clams ( Teredinid bivalve).These shipwormsare also known as the “ termites of the ocean ” – a cognomen they ’ve encounter thanks to their ability to convert wood into creature tissue paper that mold the foundation of the mysterious - ocean food chain .
“ Marine animals and their symbiotic microorganism that be on and in wood have late been record to be a potentially robust source for biomolecules of high biopharmaceutical and biotechnological value , ” writes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA in anexpedition overview . Previous inquiry pinpointed a bacteria find in shipworm that precede to an antibiotic that is being inquire as a drug to treat parasitic infections , notes the authority . Because such drugs are created using symbiotic microbes , they are “ pre - screened ” by their hosts and are less potential to be toxic to animals , holding biopharmaceutical potential difference .
Researchers atNortheastern University College of Scienceoperating under a grant provided by theNOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Researchdeployed outside detection and nautical robots last December over the course of two days . In total , they have collected , snap , and identified more than 300 animate being found on the woodwind instrument , some that may be used for next DNA depth psychology . Additionally , the squad has identified around 100 strain of bacterium , a dozen of which are currently undergo deoxyribonucleic acid sequencing .
succeeding analysis will help to ascertain whether any of the samples have the capacity to break down Ellen Price Wood , which could also have app in the Sir Henry Joseph Wood , textile , and renewable fuel sector .
The researchers add that their work lays the fundament for empathise similar nautical community as possible germ for new chemical compound , further helping to ground “ Modern tools for next discovery and teaching . ”
