A 90 million-year-old amber is discovered in Antarctica - What does this mean?!
The new discovery has closed an important gap in the global map of amber finds: for the first time, it has been discovered in Antarctica. This discovery, led by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, offers a rare glimpse into the prehistoric environment of Antarctica. She reveals that this icy expanse once supported resin-producing trees and lush, swampy forests.
The study documents this "Pine Island amber," a mid-Cretaceous discovery dating back roughly 90 million years.
Ancient trees and temperate forests at the South Pole
The amber, excavated from Pine Island Bay in the Amundsen Sea Belt, provides a unique view of life in prehistoric Antarctica. The research team, led by Dr. Johann P. Klages and Dr. Henny Gerschel, used the MARUM-MeBo70 drilling rig to recover the sediment core from nearly a kilometer below the water's surface.
The amber shards, although small at around one millimeter in diameter each, were packed with valuable information, including micro-inclusions that likely contained the bark of ancient trees.
"The analyzed amber fragments allow direct insight into the environmental conditions that prevailed in West Antarctica 90 million years ago," explains Klages.
While previous finds of amber in the Southern Hemisphere were limited to regions such as Australia and New Zealand, the discovery of Isle of Pines amber marks the southernmost recovery of Antarctic amber and suggests a once verdant continent very different from the landscape of today's frozen.
"Our goal now is to learn more about the forest ecosystem if it burns, if we can find traces of life embedded in the amber. This discovery allows a journey into the past in a more direct way.”
Forest resilience in a dynamic ecosystem
The researchers found evidence of pathological resin leakage, a defense mechanism that trees use to protect against injury, infection or fire. This amber preserved traces of resin produced by the trees as a protective barrier, indicating that the forest faced challenges from vermin or fires. Furthermore, the solid, transparent, and largely intact quality of amber suggests that it was buried close to the Earth's surface rather than deep underground, where heat and pressure would likely have degraded it.
The discovery of Pisha amber is more than an exciting find; it is an important piece of the geologic and ecological puzzle that reconstructs Earth's climate history. The presence of amber in Antarctica adds to the growing evidence that tropical rainforests existed on every continent during the mid-Cretaceous period.
Klages points out the broader implications of the discovery, explaining: "Our discovery is another piece of the puzzle and will help us better understand the swampy, coniferous-rich, temperate rainforest environment identified near the South Pole during middle Cretaceous period. "
Moving forward, the team plans to explore whether this amber contains any inclusions, such as preserved life forms, which could provide further insight into the region's ecosystem and the environmental pressures these ancient forests faced. This Antarctic amber discovery opens a unique window into a time when lush forests stretched as far south as the polar regions, supported by a much warmer global climate. As researchers continue to examine these ancient amber fragments, they hope to uncover further secrets of the past, from the diversity of forest life to the specific events, such as fires or insect infestations, that shaped this extraordinary landscape.
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