The first-ever fragment of Antarctic amber was discovered in a sediment core on the mid-shelf of Antarctica’s Pine Island Trough.
“Resins are direct plant products defined as lipophilic mixtures of volatile and non-volatile compounds that are exuded inside or on the surface of plants primarily by gymnosperms,” said first author Johann from the University of Bremen.・Dr. Klages et al. .
“Some plant resins fossilize under certain conditions and are preserved in the geological record as amber.”
“So far, the southernmost ambers date from the mid-Cretaceous period and have been found in the Otway Basin of southern Australia (Otway amber) and part of the Tupangi Formation in New Zealand's Chatham Islands (Tupangi amber), respectively.”
The first Antarctic amber was recovered by the MARUM-MeBo70 subsea drilling rig from the mid-shelf section of the Pine Island Trough in West Antarctica's Amundsen Sea Bight. RV porous stern Expedition in early 2017.
This specimen, called Pine Island amber, dates from the mid-Cretaceous period, between 92 and 83 million years ago.
The discovery points to a wet, temperate rainforest environment near Antarctica that was dominated by coniferous trees.
“Antarctic amber likely contains remnants of the original bark as microinclusions,” said co-author Dr Henny Gerschel, a researcher at the Saxon Department of Environment, Agriculture and Geology. Ta.
“Given its solid, transparent, and translucent particles, we can see that the amber is of high quality and buried close to the surface, as the amber dissipates as thermal stress and burial depth increases.”
“We also found signs of diseased resin flow, a strategy trees use to seal up damaged bark caused by parasites and wildfires, protecting them from insect attack and infection. create chemical and physical barriers that
“Our findings are another piece of the puzzle and help us better understand the wetland, conifer-rich temperate rainforest environment identified near Antarctica during the mid-Cretaceous.”
“It was very exciting to learn that at some point in their history, all seven continents had climatic conditions that allowed resin-producing trees to survive,” Dr. Klages said.
“Our goal now is to learn more about forest ecosystems. If a forest burns down, can we find traces of life in the amber?”
“This discovery allows us to travel into the past in an even more direct way.”
a paper A report of the discovery was published in today's journal Antarctic science.
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Johann P. Klages others. First discovery of Antarctic amber. Antarctic sciencepublished online on November 12, 2024. doi: 10.1017/S0954102024000208
Source: www.sci.news
