After drilling through Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf, scientists have discovered microbes, crustaceans, and even several kinds of strange fish living in water buried under nearly half a mile (740 meters) of ice.

As recently as a decade ago, it was thought that nothing could survive beneath Antarctica's massive ice sheets. The water under the ice sheet is around 33 feet (10 meters) deep, and temperatures hover below freezing.

The new finds include several kinds of fish that have big eyes, maybe because the animals live in darkness. Some were orange, others black, but the biggest fish of all had translucent skin through which the animal's internal organs could be seen. (Related: "Translucent Creature Photos.")

"From a biological perspective, we got the