Tubeworm larvae, sea snails, and marine worms were uncovered living in tiny caves underneath the ocean floor, revealing life is interconnected below and above it.

The tubeworms found at hydrothermal sites are unlike almost all other animals on Earth, in that they do not consume other organisms for food. Instead, they get essential nutrients from bacteria that live within them.

Researchers have found a thriving ecosystem of animal life in an unlikely place: beneath hydrothermal vents under the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean. A community of marine life was found below the East Pacific Rise,