These worms are strange animals, living at unbelievable depths and temperatures in the soil. Princeton University biologists discovered this incredible, ugly species of nematode at 1.3 kilometers beneath the surface in a gold-mining town called Beatrix, South Africa.

They were aptly named “Worms of Hell” by the biologists. Scientifically, however, Dr. Onstott, a member of the research team, named them Halicephalobus Mephisto, after the author Faust’s “The Devil Mephistopheles”.












