About a half billion years ago, an ancient sea covered what is now the northernmost stretches of Canada. Its seafloor was long thought to be a dead zone, devoid of the oxygen needed to support life. Turns out, tiny worms have lived in this seafloor and made themselves comfortable by burrowing their own superhighway of tunnels!
The worm tunnels were actually not visible to the naked eye, but Pratt “had a hunch” and sliced the rocks he found 35 years ago and scanned them to see whether they revealed signs of ancient life, according to a University of Saskatchewan press release.
Image Credit: University of Saskatchewan