"live on the surface" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use this phrase to describe a lifestyle or situation where someone is living a surface-level existence, without going deeper into a subject or situation. For example, "The couple seemed happy, but I sensed that they were just living on the surface and not addressing the bigger issues in their relationship."
But when they came to live on the surface of the earth, they became Ikce Wicasa, Ordinary People.
Marty and Steve live on the surface of the moon in a protected environment called the Bubble.
Various plants and animals may live on the surface of the sponge or inside its canals and cavities.
Polychaete species that live on the surface feed on fine particles carried to the mouth of the crinoid.
"You'd never be able to live on the surface," says Grady. · Living underneath the ice is a possibility but it means never seeing sunlight again.
Although some snakes burrow, others have taken up different habits: many species live on the surface of the ground, several are largely aquatic, and some live in trees.
This is the closest you can come to living on the surface of another planet.
They found common bacteria living on the surface of skin that can help wounds to heal by releasing a special molecule to stop outer-skin cells getting inflamed.
One group of regular sea urchins, radially symmetrical and living on the surface of the seafloor, radiated into a number of irregular echinoid groups (heart urchins) that could burrow into sediment.
We also saw rocks that were derived from sand dunes; minerals like gypsum that normally form when water evaporates, leaving its dissolved salts behind; and evidence of mats of cyanobacteria that were living on the surface of the mud.
Remind them to think broadly about this place, not only listing what lives on the surface, but also what they might find if they dug into the soil or looked into the air.
