Novel bacteria live in Lake Vostok. THEY LIVE!

PhysOrg announces the discovery of eerie, ancient lifeforms in an Antarctic lake:

The samples obtained from the underground lake in May 2012 contained a bacteria which bore no resemblance to existing types, said Sergei Bulat of the genetics laboratory at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics.

“After putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA was found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in the global database,” he said.

“We are calling this life form unclassified and unidentified,” he added.

The discovery comes from samples collected in an expedition in 2012 where a Russian team drilled down to the surface of Lake Vostok, which is believed to have been covered by ice for more than a million years but has kept its liquid state.

Here come the shoggoths.

[via Charlie Lloyd]