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Thiel was interested in the region’s largely unstudied meiofauna — the tiny animals that live on and between the nodules.

Living between the wet sand grains is a whole universe of microscopic life: the meiofauna.

Perhaps the habitats least explored and prospected for life are the most familiar: soil, sediments in ponds, and the seashore — the home of the meiofauna, creatures that make their living between particles of minerals and detritus.

Meiofauna creatures at their largest are just at the verge of unaided visibility, down to about 40 micrometres in diameter — a world literally in the interstices, too small for every day, but too big to trouble micro- or molecular biologists.