The Meyer Desert Formation biota is a

fossilized A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

biota (

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...

) found in the

Dominion Range The Dominion Range () is a broad mountain range, about long, forming a prominent salient at the juncture of the Beardmore and Mill glaciers in Antarctica. The range is part of the Queen Maud Mountains The range was discovered by the British Ant ...

in the

Transantarctic Mountains The Transantarctic Mountains (abbreviated TAM) comprise a mountain range of uplifted (primarily sedimentary) rock in Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare in northern Victoria Land to Coats Land. ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

, alongside the Beardmore Glacier. Since about 15 million years ago (Ma), Antarctica has been mostly covered with ice. Fossil ''

Nothofagus ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Gui ...

'' leaves in the Meyer Desert Formation of the Sirius Group show that intermittent warm periods allowed ''Nothofagus'' shrubs to cling to the

as late as 3–4 Ma (mid-late

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

glaciation covered the whole continent with ice and destroyed all major plant life on it. Species reported by Ashworth and Cantrill from about 3 million years ago include: Animals: *''

Pisidium ''Pisidium'' is a genus of very small or minute freshwater clams known as pill clams or pea clams, aquatic bivalve molluscs in the family Sphaeriidae, the pea clams and fingernail clams. In some bivalve classification systems, the family S ...

'' species (very small or minute freshwater clams,

Sphaeriidae Sphaeriidae is a family of small to minute freshwater bivalve molluscs in the order Sphaeriida. In the US, they are commonly known as pea clams or fingernail clams. Heard, William H. 1977. Reproduction of fingernail clams (Sphaeriidae: ''Sphae ...

) *A lymnaeid gastropod (air-breathing freshwater snails) * 2 species of curculionid beetles (weevils) * A cyclorrhaphid fly ( Diptera) * A tooth of an unknown species of freshwater

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

Plants: *''

beardmorensis'' (

Fagales The Fagales are an order of flowering plants, including some of the best-known trees. The order name is derived from genus ''Fagus'', beeches. They belong among the rosid group of dicotyledons. The families and genera currently included are as ...

) *''

Ranunculus ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about almost 1700 to more than 1800 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed in Europe ...

'' or similar achenes (

Ranunculaceae Ranunculaceae (buttercup or crowfoot family; Latin "little frog", from "frog") is a family of over 2,000 known species of flowering plants in 43 genera, distributed worldwide. The largest genera are ''Ranunculus'' (600 species), ''Delphinium' ...

?) * Mosses (apparently 5 types) * Pollen, mostly ''Nothofagus'' * Coniferous bisaccate pollen grains, perhaps '' Podocarpidites'' * Pollen of the pollen genus '' Tricolpites'' * Flowering

cushion plant A cushion plant is a compact, low-growing, mat-forming plant that is found in alpine, subalpine, arctic, or subarctic environments around the world. The term "cushion" is usually applied to woody plants that grow as spreading mats, are limited in ...

s *A seed of ''

Hippuris ''Hippuris'', the mare's tail, was previously the sole genus in the family Hippuridaceae. Following genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it has now been transferred to the family Plantaginaceae, with Hippuridaceae being reduced to ...

'' (mare's tails:

Plantaginaceae Plantaginaceae, the plantain family, is a large, diverse family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales that includes common flowers such as snapdragon and foxglove. It is unrelated to the banana-like fruit also called "plantain." In older cl ...

) *A seed of Cyperaceae (sedges) * 3 or more types of

liverwort The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of ...

References

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External links

Fossil weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) from latitude 85 S AntarcticaCenozoic terrestrial palynological assemblages in the glacial erratics from the Grove Mountains, east AntarcticaNeogene vegetation of the Meyer Desert Formation (Sirius Group), Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica, by Allan C. Ashworth and David J. CantrillA Forest Grows in Antarctica
*H.M. Li and Z.K. Zhou (2007) ''Fossil nothofagaceous leaves from the Eocene of western Antarctica and their bearing on the origin, dispersal and systematics of Nothofagus''. Science in China. 50(10): 1525-1535.

an

''New grounds for reassessing palaeoclimate of the Sirius Group, Antarctica'', G. J. Retallack, E. S. Krull and J. G. Bockheim:: full abstract, and passworded links to full article. Cenozoic Antarctica Paleontology in Antarctica Prehistoric biotas Transantarctic Mountains Paleogene plants Neogene plants Pliocene extinctions