Newly Discovered Iron-breathing Species Have Lived In Cold Isolation For Millions Of Years

"Chemical analysis of effluent from the inaccessible subglacial pool suggests that its inhabitants have eked out a living by breathing iron leached from bedrock with the help of a sulfur catalyst. Lacking any light to support photosynthesis, the microbes have presumably survived by feeding on the organic matter trapped with them when the massive Taylor Glacier sealed off their habitat an estimated 1.5 to 2 million years ago."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090416144512.htm