Scientists' find reveals the past of Antarctica in the era of dinosaurs

During the Late Cretaceous (100 to 66 Ma), one of the warmest periods on Earth, James Island

Ross in Antarctica was green.Conifers, ferns, flowering plants grew there, and dinosaurs lived there. However, ancient fires completely burned part of the green cover, leaving behind traces of charcoal, which scientists collected and studied.

A petrified piece of charcoal next to the coin. (Image credit: De Lima, FJ et al. Polar Research (2021); CC BY 4.0)

"This discovery expands knowledgeabout the occurrence of fires in the Cretaceous period. It turned out that this happened more often than previously thought,” said lead researcher Flaviana Jorge de Lima, a paleobiologist at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil.

This find is the first recordedevidence of a paleofire on James Ross Island, part of the Antarctic Peninsula that now lies beneath South America. The study shows that spontaneous fires were common in Antarctica during the Campanian era (roughly 84 to 72 million years ago). In 2015, scientists documented the first known evidence of dinosaur-era wildfires in West Antarctica. The results were published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

Dinosaurs try to escape a wildfire in Antarctica at the end of the Cretaceous. (Image credit: illustration by Maurilio Oliveira; De Lima, FJ et al. Polar Research (2021); CC BY 4.0)

For a new job, an international team of scientistsanalyzed the fossils collected during the 2015-2016 expedition in the northeastern part of James Ross Island. These fossils contained plant fragments, similar to the remains of charcoal, that have been weathered over the past tens of millions of years.

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