Homo sapiens.

However, he put this doubt aside first, adjusted the camera and searchlight a little bit, and continued to observe other areas in the hollow area.

However, Foucault, who was lowering the magnetic field detector, saw a vague hollow area. As the detector got closer and closer to the depth of 1083 meters, the outline of this hollow area became more and more obvious.

"This is..." Foucault was very surprised.

"What's wrong?" Atsushi Fujita turned his head to look at the holographic projection strata.

Then Atsushi Fujita was attracted by the projected formation in front of him.

Because there are a large number of "pipes" densely covered in the stratum in front of us. These pipes are distributed in the area of ​​about 1000 meters to 1500 meters underground, and the diameter of the track is about 0.3 to 0.5 meters.

Suddenly Fujita exclaimed: "Something is moving!?"

Others were also attracted by Atsushi Fujita's voice. Everyone surrounded the holographic projection stratum, looking at the stratum with constantly refreshing accuracy. They had already seen that there was indeed something moving rapidly in the underground pipeline.

Huang Wei zoomed in on the screen, and then set the mobile lock: "Creature?"

"They're approaching where the drill was," Foucault reminded Fujita.

Fujita, who woke up like a dream, quickly changed the camera to infrared mode, and turned off the searchlight at the same time, so as to avoid the light from making underground creatures dare not approach.

At this time, the magnetic field detector also stopped at a position 20 meters above the drill bit. At this position, the accuracy of magnetic field detection is very high, basically reaching the centimeter level.

Among the high-precision data of the magnetic field detector, the underground pipelines in the entire formation are very clear.

About 17 minutes later, the infrared camera finally captured a picture of a strange creature.

The sneaky underground creature seems to be sensing the situation of the drill by using the hair on its head.

This creature is not too big, almost as big as a football, and its shape is a bit like a pangolin, but this Venus pangolin is more rounded, and its body is like a sphere.

The Venus pangolin turned around at the drill bit, and it didn't seem to notice anything unusual, so it left the vicinity of the drill bit.

In the cockpit of the submarine, Foucault and others stopped drilling and quickly reported the discovery.

After all, this discovery is too special.

Fujita said with emotion: "Sure enough, anthropocentrism and earth-centrism are extremely arrogant theories."

"This is indeed a great discovery. Many people have always believed that the earth is the cradle of life, the only planet in the solar system that gave birth to life and intelligent creatures. Now it seems that this argument needs to be discussed." Huang Wei also thought about it.

Compared with the Venus pangolin in front of us, the relatively primitive forms of Venus' atmospheric organisms, lunar underground organisms, and Martian underground organisms are definitely two levels of life.

After all, the surface of Venus is too harsh, and the shallow surface is also harsh.

But in such a harsh environment, advanced multicellular organisms were born. This is definitely a great discovery that shocked the biology of the universe.

The reason why it is called a great discovery is because the environment of Venus is so harsh that such advanced creatures can be born, so the probability of birth of creatures in other planetary systems in the universe is very high.

In this way, human civilization is most likely not an isolated intelligent race in the Milky Way.

As for why there are intelligent beings and civilizations in other galaxies, but we have not discovered them, the reason is very simple.

Speed ​​of light!

That's right, the speed of light.

Even a Homo sapiens company that has billions of talents and is united as one, is still helpless in the face of the speed of light bottleneck.

As long as the speed of human navigation cannot exceed the speed of light, it is almost impossible to contact civilizations in other galaxies.

The speed of light bottleneck locks the coverage of a civilization, at most it can only be within its own planetary system.

In other words, many civilizations, like human civilizations, have been trying to find other civilizations, but because of the speed of light bottleneck, they can only be locked in their own parent planetary system.

Chapter 595 Gift

Li Qingye, who has inspected Southeast Asia for more than a month with a synchronous robot, came to Latin America at this time.

But his body is still in the Pan Gu world.

Bagheera appeared in his little biosphere.

"Mr. Chairman, the Space Division has issued a Class A document, which is an investigation report on life on Venus."

Li Qingye rolled his eyes, took the tablet and said, "Is it about those nitrogen algae?"

"No, it's a new discovery." Bagheera shook his head.

At this time, Li Qingye had already seen the investigation report on the tablet, and he raised his brows: "Underground creatures? Or are these advanced forms of creatures? Interesting..."

He continued to look carefully.

The creature temporarily named "Venus pangolin", as well as a series of subsequent explorations and sample captures at the Yungong base, they discovered 387 new species in this stratum.

Most of them are microorganisms, and there are only 14 species of relatively large multicellular organisms like Venus pangolins.

Their ecosystems depend on the abundant geothermal energy of Venus. Without such abundant geothermal energy and the ability of the atmosphere to keep warm, they cannot obtain enough energy.

The great explosion of life on the earth originated from the geothermal heat of the black chimneys on the seabed, and flourished from the irradiation of the sun.

As for the birth of underground life on Venus, according to the research of Yungong Base and related ecological and biological researchers, it is very likely that it was created by underground hot springs.

Although there is no sunlight, the heat energy on the surface of Venus is very abundant. Although the underground temperature is not high due to the obstruction of the stratum, it is precisely this relatively low temperature that makes it possible for life to appear.

After all, the high temperature of 400-500 degrees Celsius on the surface of Venus, not to mention living things, ordinary metals can't handle it.

In the area of ​​1000-1500 meters underground, the temperature is maintained between 33-46 degrees Celsius, which is a temperature that many organisms can bear.

In the investigation report, the investigators also found that Venus pangolins raised crystal ants, and crystal ants feed on sulfur-based fungi. Sulfur-based fungi reproduce by relying on geothermal heat and animal carcasses and excrement. This constitutes a relative complete food chain.

Venus pangolins will dig caves in places with more suitable humidity and temperature, and then stock some crystal ants and sulfur-based fungi in these caves.

Of course, these caves are not random, but only in mineral-rich rock formation areas.

The Venus pangolin is a semi-social creature, usually in a family unit, while the crystal ant is a group creature, with at least tens of thousands in a nest.

Due to the high pressure on Venus, these creatures have evolved bodies that can adapt to ultra-high pressure.

Li Qingye is more curious about how these creatures breathe.

Investigators are equally curious.

From the obtained samples, bacteria and fungi are all developed from anaerobic bacteria. Oxygen is a poisonous gas for them. They absorb sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and water, and use heat energy to generate thermosynthesis to achieve energy conversion.

Although sulfur-based fungi can release oxygen, the oxygen they release will soon be absorbed by the elemental iron, elemental copper and other elemental active metals in the formation tunnels.

Obviously, the conversion efficiency of sulfur-based fungi to carbon dioxide and oxygen is mediocre, not as terrifying as that of the cyanobacteria family, which greatly slows down the oxidation rate of Venus formations.

Similarly, crystal ants and Venus pangolins do not breathe oxygen, but methane gas.

In the entire underground world, there are a large number of anaerobic bacteria, many of which are methanogenic bacteria, which causes the methane concentration in the formation to reach about 17%.

The underground atmosphere of this ecosystem contains about 72% carbon dioxide, 17% methane, 5% sulfur dioxide, 3% nitrogen dioxide, and the remaining 3% is hydrogen sulfide, oxygen, radon, hydrogen, nitrogen and Ammonia and the like.

Li Qingye discovered that the methane-producing bacteria on Venus have a much higher methane conversion efficiency than that on Earth, even better than the methane bacteria he transformed using genetic recombination technology.

Of course, he also saw some of the problems, that is, the environments of the two sides are different.

The underground ecosphere of Venus has always been dominated by anaerobic bacteria. Coupled with perennial high temperature and high pressure, this environment makes it easier for methane bacteria to decompose organic matter and convert it into methane.

The environment of the earth certainly cannot give too much living space for anaerobic bacteria. The earth is the site of aerobic organisms.

Li Qingye sighed: "Nature is truly miraculous, a completely different species can be produced between a drink and a peck."

Although Yungong Base's research on Venus' underground ecosystem is just beginning at this stage, he seems to have foreseen the future.

Homo sapiens will surely find similar ecosystems on other planets.

This kind of underground ecosystem may be more common than the earth's surface ecosystem.

After all, if the environmental conditions of the earth are used as the standard, the habitable zone of the so-called planetary system will be very narrow, and even the main sequence stars of the planetary system have relatively strict restrictions.

But if the underground ecosystem of Venus is used as the standard, then almost all terrestrial planets and large rocky satellites are likely to have life.

From the perspective of the birth of life, the core elements for the birth of life are temperature and energy, as well as a suitable chemical medium.

A planet like the Earth, which happens to have a suitable temperature, a large amount of water resources, and a strong geomagnetic field, actually has relatively harsh conditions.

However, the stratigraphic structure of terrestrial planets raises another possibility, that is, groundwater, geothermal heat, and stratum protection. These three conditions can be met in many terrestrial planets.

Therefore, Li Qingye can roughly predict that in the Milky Way and in various planetary systems, the probability of the birth of underground civilizations is higher than that of surface civilizations.

After all, just look at the current solar system. There are underground creatures on Venus, Mars, and the moon, and Venus' atmospheric creatures are added.

The proportion of life on the surface, underground, and atmosphere is 1:3:1.

There are other rocky large moons in the solar system that have not been explored, such as Titan.

From this point of view, the planets with underground organisms may be several times, or even dozens of times, the number of planets with surface organisms.

Of course, for underground organisms to develop to the height of human civilization, the difficulty is higher than that of human civilization.

Because it can be understood that underground organisms are protected by thick rock layers, and this rock layer is like the earth's atmosphere and magnetic field.

The underground civilization needs to break through the limitations of the rock layer and become a surface civilization before it can enter the universe.

They have to cross one more boundary layer than human civilization before they can become a first-level civilization that controls the planetary system.

Breaking through the limit of the rock layer is a very dangerous thing in itself, just like when we enter outer space, the environment on the surface is definitely not suitable for long-term life of underground organisms.

Therefore, underground organisms, surface organisms, and atmospheric organisms should have their own advantages and disadvantages, depending on how they develop and luck.

Human civilization can develop to the present stage, luck accounts for a large part.

After all, in the history of the evolution of life on Earth, destructive mass extinctions abound. Humans just happened to be in this relatively safe vacuum period and took advantage of the opportunity to rise rapidly.

If humans and dinosaurs were in the same era, there is a high probability that they will also receive box lunches with dinosaurs.

Every civilization in the universe is a kind of miracle.

Chapter 596 In-depth Exploration

Venus.

In the basin near the South Pole, the scientific research submarine was still moored in it, but at this time the scientific research submarine had actually returned to the Yungong base once, and sent the collected underground biological samples back to the Yungong base.

It's time for another rotation.

Foucault, Huang Wei, Fujita Oh and others continued to return to their posts through synchronous robots.

This time they immediately activated three spider-like robots. These robots used various advanced materials, and were also equipped with nuclear batteries, magnetic monopole crystal communicators, and magnetic field detectors.

Send spiderbots straight into the ground.

Now the Yungong base is very interested in the underground world of Venus.

The task of Foucault and others is to fully detect the boundaries of the underground world.

Three spider robots entered the activity area of ​​underground creatures one by one.

Huang Wei, who is in charge of controlling the spider robot, is collecting the surrounding stratum data and the characteristics of life forms through the magnetic field detector.

After all, the previously collected Venus pangolins, crystal ants, and sulfur-based fungi have been able to study part of Venus' underground ecosystem.

But the Yungong base and the science department behind it are very sure that there are more species existing underground on Venus.

The reason for this judgment is the existence of two multicellular organisms, the Venus pangolin and the crystal ant, because there must not be only a few types of multicellular organisms.

If there are only a few multicellular organisms, it is difficult for this ecosystem to develop such an advanced animal as the Venus pangolin.

What's more, there is only one drilling position for scientific research submarines, and the detection radius is less than 100 kilometers.

This range is just the tip of the iceberg for the entire formation of Venus.

The spider robots were divided into three groups and explored in three directions. The tunnels dug by these Venus pangolins spread throughout the stratum, like a huge underground labyrinth.

Fortunately, there is a magnetic monopole crystal communicator that can directly ignore the barrier of the stratum. Otherwise, ordinary radio communication cannot be used in this underground labyrinth.

The spider robot controlled by Huang Wei faces north, and the spider robots of the other two face west and south respectively.

There is basically no need to detect the east side, because there are several active volcanoes on the east side, and there are highly active magma activities underground, so it is definitely not the habitat of underground creatures.

The movement of the spider robot in this kind of underground tunnel is very convenient and very fast.

Soon the spider robot controlled by Huang Wei encountered three Venus pangolins, and Huang Wei, who didn't want to hurt them, directly activated the sonic repellent.

A burst of infrasound spreads around.

Immediately, the three Venus pangolins seemed to be stimulated by something, instantly rolled up their bodies and turned into a sphere, and then began to roll towards the slope of the tunnel. They quickly escaped from the coverage of the infrasound waves.

This infrasound frequency was tested from several Venus pangolins they captured before. It can make Venus pangolins feel uncomfortable without killing them all at once.

Although 100 Venus pangolins were found in strata within a radius of 342 kilometers, the total number of this group is still not fully determined. If the total number of Venus pangolins is very small, casual hunting may lead to the destruction of this group.