article_snippet.sent: Instead, archae bacteria scavenge the chemicals archae bacteria need to survive by breaking down the hydrocarbon compounds in the coal around archae bacteria.
article_snippet.sent: By pushing tubes into the ocean floor Dr Valentine and his colleagues retrieved sediments and brought the contents back to the lab where Dr Valentine and his colleagues grew the bacteria.
article_snippet.sent: The researchers, whose work is published in the journal Nature Communications, screened other samples taken from around the world and found similar fingerprints in bacteria from Norway and elsewhere along the coast of California.
article_snippet.sent: Scientists used submersible Alvin (left) to obtain sediment samples (right) from the the the Santa Monica basin .
article_snippet.sent: The sea floor, shown above, is covered in microbial mats of primitive bacteria that are infected with viruses .
article_snippet.sent: The researchers also found similar guided mutation elements in the archae bacteria living under the ocean floor themselves.
article_snippet.sent: Tiny bacteria known as nanoarchaea targetted four distinct genes.
article_snippet.sent: The image above shows a ridge covered in microbial mats on the ocean floor of the the Santa Monica basin . '