The dry valleys of Antarctica form the coldest, driest, and windiest ecosystems known. Robert Falcon Scott, one of the earliest explorers of the McMurdo region of Antarctica, referred to the McMurdo Dry Valleys as the "Valley of the Dead" during his first visit in 1903. Recent studies in Antarctica have yielded new information about the presence of microbial life in soils, sandstones, melt water ponds, and the ice and liquid water columns of permanently ice-covered lakes, proving that the valleys are not dead as Scott had believed. Most of the microorganisms found in these habitats are prokaryotic and thrive in what would otherwise appear to be an inhospitable environment.