A species of worm has been discovered living 2.2 miles below ground!

The worm, a species of nematode, has been named Halicephalobus mephisto after Mephistopheles, the demon from Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. This is a fairly appropriate name because this ‘devil worm’ lives at hellish depths compared to all its known brethren. Before this species was found, nematodes were not known to inhabit depths beyond dozens of feet! Perhaps even more amazing, the worms live on microbes that are a million times smaller than its own body! These bacteria are the only other known organisms able to survive at such incredible depths. Tullis Onstott, a Princeton geomicrobiologist on the study, compares the nematode’s circumstances to “finding a whale in Lake Ontario” because the worm feeding on microbes is about as unlikely as these aquatic mammals subsisting on tiny plankton!

(source)