A priceless discovery

A team of scientists has discovered fossilized tree resin amber on the continent for the first time. It was obtained from a sediment core lifted from a depth of 946 meters beneath the Amundsen Sea ledge in West Antarctica. Analysis of this miniature fossilized piece could help understand the ancient climate and environment on the continent now known for its unfavorable conditions, Channel 24 reported, citing Antarctic Science.

Sedimentary rock cores found by the team were dated 90 million yearsSo the age of amber dates back to the Cretaceous period, about 25 million years before iconic creatures like Tyrannosaurus Rex disappeared from Earth.

The analyzed pieces of amber provide a direct insight into the environmental conditions prevailing in West Antarctica 90 million years ago. This impressive finding also shows in more detail how the forest we reconstructed in our study for Nature in 2020 might work.
– says Johann Klages, marine geologist from the Alfred Wegener Institute and first author of the study.

Indeed, the team’s 2020 paper in the journal Nature reconstructed an ancient temperate lowland rainforest environment in Antarctica that existed between 92 million and 83 million years ago. The team developed a climate model that simulates the climate of the ancient past, based on a preserved network of 3-meter-long fossil roots embedded in claystone.

Amber specimens are quite small. They were also cut to the required size for microscopic analysis. Scientists hope that this transparent fossilized resin “contains traces of tree bark in the form of micro-remains.”

Amber itself proves the existence of resin-producing trees. Scientists believe these trees probably grew in a swampy environment.

It is truly impressive that we were able to extract the first amber from the Antarctic continent from these deposits. Amber has great potential to preserve pollen, spores, microorganisms and insects. Now we will investigate more carefully and try to find out which tree may have produced the resin.
– added Johann Klages.

Why is this invention special?

Many traces of past life were found during research in Antarctica. It is mostly preserved in the form of decayed wood or leaves, and also in the form of fossil bones.

However, all these remains were never deeply buried and therefore have a relatively fresh appearance and are quite widespread, “unlimited”, as scientists say.

Instead, the amber from this new study takes us back to the Cretaceous Period, which began about 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago. Klages says that if the amber had been buried deeper, the team would never have found it.

what’s next

The research team hopes that new amber finds in Antarctica will shed light on what happened to the continent’s forests and, with any luck, even uncover an ancient creature or two.

“It was very interesting to realize that at some point in their history, all seven continents had climatic conditions that allowed resin-producing trees to survive. Our goal now is to learn more about the forest ecosystem,” the scientist said.