A tardigrade (file image). Photo: 123RF
New species of microscopic creatures have been discovered in the Southern Alps.
Tardigrades, also known as Water Bears or Moss Pigs, are less than a millimetre long and live in harsh environments around the world.
Otago University Professor Peter Dearden said four unique tardigrade species were found living in the Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers, and the Whataroa Valley.
"Importantly, they're not just frozen and stuck in the ice, they're moving around and they're eating algae," he said.
"These are living in the ice of our glaciers and that's a remarkable thing."
Over a thousand different tardigrade species live around the world, and Dearden estimated thousands more were undiscovered.
"There are lots and lots of these things, and there are only a couple of experts in the world who are able to tell them apart," he said. "If you looked hard enough, you could probably find new species throughout New Zealand."
One of the new species is transparent, like other tardigrades from the Arctic and Antarctic, while the others were darkly coloured like those found on high mountains around the world.
What was special about these species, Dearden said, was that they were living in solid ice.
Four unique tardigrade species have been found living in the Fox and Franz Joseph (pictured) glaciers, and the Whataroa Valley. Photo: 123RF
"That's a remarkable finding," he said. "That these things are living there, and they're clearly thriving there."
Tardigrades are uniquely resilient, surviving in environments other animals could never touch.
"They have this really amazing ability to become completely dried out and then, when water is added, pop back to life," Dearden said.
But that was not the case here, as the tardigrades in the Southern Alps were moving and feeding, Dearden said.
The new species likely branched out as the glaciers broke apart, he said.
"In the past when there was more ice there were probably one or two species across the whole ice cap of the alps.
"As the climate has warmed, they've broken up into these individual glaciers and that's what's starting to cause speciation."
As the climate got hotter, more species would evolve, Dearden said.