Amber Unearthed in Antarctica Alludes to Ancient Arboreal Area

You’d have to go back 90 million years to find trees on Antarctica. In a way, that’s what paleontologists just did. 

A German research team studied a soil sample from West Antarctica. The soil was drilled from the seafloor 946 meters below the ice that covers the region. They found tiny pieces of amber in the soil sample. Amber is a clear, orangish substance. It is the petrified sap of prehistoric trees. 

The amber hints at the climate present in West Antarctica 90 million years ago, marine geologist Johann Klages told Phys.org. Klages said it was thrilling to see that at some time in the past, all seven continents had climates where trees could survive.

Trees leak sap when they're damaged. That sap can fossilize. The result is amber. Klages’ team hopes to study tiny particles trapped in the amber. They aim to learn more about the types of trees and other living things that once lived on Earth’s most southerly continent.     

The amber is one more "piece of the puzzle," study co-author Henry Gerschel said. He believes it will help us understand "the swampy, conifer-rich, temperate rainforest … identified near the South Pole during the mid-Cretaceous."

Klages’ and Gerschel’s team published their findings this month in the journal Antarctic Science. 

Reflect: How can studying things that happened millions of years ago help scientists understand the world today?

Gif of the arctic from GIPHY.