# Which animal lives the deepest below sea level, excluding those that live in sea/lake **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 4, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876 "2011-11-04T17:53:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/1 "2011-11-04T17:53:12Z")
Sorry about the weird phrasing in the header. I phrase this in an old OP as “how low can a worm go.” On earth, somewhere between the molten iron core and sea level. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/2 "2011-11-04T18:25:56Z")
Halicephalobus mephisto is a roundworm found 2.2miles below the surface in a goldmine in [South Africa](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1393614/Worm-discovered-South-African-gold-deepest-living-land-animal-found.html#ixzz1clJzkJ2s). I’m not sure what the elevatation of the mine is. How about which animal lives the deepest below sea level on land? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/3 "2011-11-04T18:29:58Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > How about which animal lives the deepest below sea level on land? [_Homo israeliensis_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea) ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/4 "2011-11-04T18:36:21Z")
Recently read that they’re finding more and more subterranean animals (admittedly, small thing like roundworms) in deep rock, leading them to believe there are probably a _lot_ more of them that we don’t know about. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/5 "2011-11-04T21:01:11Z")
The implication of the OP is “land animal,” but it should be noted that many invertebrates and a few families of fish live at the floor of the deep oceans, well below anywhere that humans have actually gotten to underground (as opposed to boreholes). ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/6 "2011-11-04T22:47:03Z")
Aren’t there some worms or something living on the sulfur compounds where the ocean floor is spreading? ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/7 "2011-11-04T22:49:56Z")
> [@thelabdude](#): > > Aren’t there some worms or something living on the sulfur compounds where the ocean floor is spreading? Once, for twenty minutes… ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/8 "2011-11-04T22:52:23Z")
Our ecology is based, ultimately, on photosynthesis. This source of energy obviously isn’t available to deep-subterranean organisms; could something have evolved that receives its energy from some other source? ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/9 "2011-11-04T23:09:36Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Our ecology is based, ultimately, on photosynthesis. This source of energy obviously isn’t available to deep-subterranean organisms; could something have evolved that receives its energy from some other source? There is a fair amount of life that is based on extracting energy from hydrogen sulfide. There are ecosystems based around the hydrogen sulfide coming from hot underwater vents. This is probably what thelabdude is thinking of. I also saw a TV show about bacteria in caves living off of hydrogen sulfide in the caves. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/10 "2011-11-05T01:50:54Z")
Does bacteria count? Archaea has been found 3 miles down (2 miles water, 1 mile rock) living off methane. > **[Deepest-Dwelling Life Forms Found](https://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-05/deepest-dwelling-life-forms-found/)** > > The Archaea group of organisms has just gotten a little bigger—and quite a bit deeper. Known to scientists as extremophiles—organisms which live in places inhospitable to other forms of life—the Archaea group is home to many single-celled creatures... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/11 "2011-11-05T02:00:05Z")
Double nitpick: Archae aren’t bacteria, and neither of them are animals. If one were to divide all terrestrial life into only three categories, there’d be one for the archae, one for the bacteria, and one for everything else, including all of the animals, plants, and fungi, and a great many one-celled things. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-lives-the-deepest-below-sea-level-excluding-those-that-live-in-sea-lake/601876/12 "2011-11-05T03:41:04Z")
I knew that you guys would go off on the “the sea floor is part of earth, so let’s paddle this idea around.” Yet again, my incomplete specificity and the apparently eagle-eyed ability of Dopers to find loopholes 🙂 obscured the point of the question: Fauna (ok, I’m upset now, so I’ll add flora) that live or extend anywhere above sea level on land downwards. _ **Sailbird** _ above has the right point.