Scientist were dumbfounded when the first reports of thriving communities around hydrothermal vents were presented in the late 1970s.  Not only were their chemoautotrophic bacteria providing energy for an entire community, but they were deriving their energy from sulfide compounds extruded from 400^o C water at the bottom of the ocean.  The discovery of hydrothermal communities essentially started the search for other communities in the deep ocean.  Even though hydrothermal communities are the best known of the deep sea communities, our understanding of the microbes and other members of the fauna is still in an infancy stage.