An international team of scientists has found a vibrant, previously unknown ecosystem flourishing in the extreme depths of the ocean. This discovery challenges prior beliefs about life's survival in such harsh environments.

Scientists have discovered a thriving and previously unknown ecosystem in the planet’s deepest ocean trenches, feeding on organic debris from above. At those depths the pressure is enough to crush a submarine, and combined with perpetual darkness and temperatures near freezing, it makes the deepest reaches of the oceans among the least explored places on Earth. Until now, researchers believed that only a few anemones, sponges or bacteria could survive under such conditions. But an international....