These creatures are living at the very edges of hospitable environments — with strange and scarce energy sources, little to no water and scorching heat. Many spend their lives bound to minerals, and move only with the random motion of molecules in the sediments. As a result, they can tell us a lot about the limits of life in the harsh environments of other planets, Amend said

Many scientists think life on Earth may have emerged from hydrothermal vents in the seafloor, so these primitive subsurface dwellers could reveal insights into the first primitive cells that started life on Earth, Amend said