It is the Blue Whale, the largest of animal on Earth, and the largest of the Baleen Whales.

(http://www.asoc.org/pdfs/2007/Whales052107.pdf – Antarctic & Southern Ocean Coalition)

What is unusual about Lake Vostok

It is one of the largest lakes in the world – at 10,000 square km it’s about the extent of Lake Ontario, but about twice as deep (500m in places).

Biologists believe that because the lake has been cut off from the rest of the planet for 15 million years or more – well before the human race evolved – microbial life in the lake could have quietly been evolving into strange and unique forms

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/vostok.shtml

NASA article on underground lakes, including Lake Vostok

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast09sep99_1.htm

A Research Paper on Lake Vostok

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/vostok/index.html

Name of Supercontinent Antarctica was once part of: Gondwanaland

Time Magazine -http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,969165-3,00.html