Discovered creatures with up to 3 genders in a nearly lifeless place

Like the Death Valley of Antarctica, or the deepest part of the ocean at the bottom of the Mariana Basin, Lake Mono in California (USA) is also not an ideal place for life, even considered dead ground. for most creatures. Due to the salt content of the lake being extremely salty, except for bacteria and algae, only one species of shrimp exists here.

Mono Lake is extremely salty in the United States.

But when the research deepened, scientists from the California Institute of Technology realized that the lake contained more interesting points than people thought. Recently, they found 8 microscopic worm species in and around the lake. In particular, one of them is surprisingly strong.

It was named Auanema sp. - a creature of the nematode family The reason it is noticed is because this creature possesses not only one or two sexes (mono and hermaphrodite), but has . three different genders . Not to mention, they are very tough to survive in the arsenic-contaminated environment 500 times higher than the human tolerance level.

Usually in nematode species, the sex with them is very simple: divided into hermaphrodites, or males. But with Auanema sp., They also have female sex, so they are also called "triple sex" . More specifically, the male and female sex worms seem to be attracted to each other.

The new worm is capable of giving birth, instead of just cloning.

With this finding, the researchers suggest that the new worm is capable of reproducing, rather than replicating, something unprecedented for the nematode family.

According to experts, this is a special species of worm and where it lives is also very special, and this can affect its ability. The team thinks their reproductive mechanisms are part of the reason why they survive in an environment of deadly high salt concentrations like Lake Mono.

"This study shows that we still have a lot to learn about animals living in harsh environments," said Pei-Yin Shih, author of the study.

When compared with two other nematode species, the researchers found that the other two species were also highly resistant to arsenic in the water. The problem is that their habitat is not so much arsenic, and this makes things difficult to understand.

The DNA of the microorganisms in the tank is also resistant to arsenic.

"Auanema species used to live separately in fertile soils with high phosphate content. Because arsenic is often absorbed with phosphate, perhaps high phosphate concentrations also increase the arsenic resistance of animals." - Experts put hypotheses.

It is known that Lake Mono has a higher salinity than a strong alkaline substance like baking soda. Yet there are still living creatures, even proliferating like nematodes.

There are about 57 million similar worm species in the world.

The research is published in Current Biology.