In 1980 Daniel Desbruyères and Lucien Laubier, just few years after the discovery of the first hydrothermal vent system, identified one of the most heat-tolerant animals on Earth - Alvinella pompejana, the Pompeii worm [REF].
Attaching themselves to black smokers, the worms have been found to thrive at temperatures of up to , making the Pompeii worm the most heat-tolerant complex animal known to science after the tardigrades (or water bears), which are able to survive temperatures over 150 °C.