<
https://theconversation.com/antarctic-ice-age-survival-story-life-seeking-ice-free-refuges-imitates-art-in-ice-age-the-movie-201231>
"Antarctica is an icy place today, but the ice extended even further during
past ice ages. The question of how and where life survived on land in the icy
continent, through the ages, has long puzzled biologists.
Ever since the first expeditions to Antarctica, the persistence of life in this
inhospitable environment has remained a mystery. Until now.
We assembled data to test our theory of how life survived previous ice ages. We
argue that life forms including invertebrates, vertebrates and plants persisted
by retreating to numerous ice-free areas, called nunataks, that were not buried
by advancing glaciers.
Then when Antarctica gradually warmed up again, life expanded from these
nunatak refuges to repopulate larger ice-free areas. Our approach explains the
uneven distribution of Antarctic terrestrial life, and identifies new research
priorities to test our theory further."
Cheres,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
