A view of the researchers camp on Vega Island from on high. (Credit: Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project) A recent expedition to Antarctica has returned with a cache of fossils and data gathered over the course of almost two months of work on the frozen continent. Before you ask what they found, however, let's get to the real question: What were they even doing there in the first place? Hunting for fossils in the most inaccessible and inhospitable continent on the planet, where over 99 percent of the ground is covered in solid ice, seems like a tall order, verging on an exercise in masochism. Antarctica may be possessed of bone-chilling winds and desolate tundras, but it also hides a trove of fossils from one of the most intriguing epochs of life on earth. The Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project, or AP3 for short, is a diverse team of paleontologists and geologists, along with a large support staff, that has made three trips to Antarctica over the past seven years to prospect, explore and collect data. Their latest trip, which lasted from February 2 to March 24, was the longest and largest to date and built on their work from previous expeditions. This year, they returned with a wealth of fossils — still to be studied — that likely represent several new species and further illuminate one of the more mysterious moments in Earth's history. Although the paleontological rewards are big in Antarctica, every day tests researchers' patience and grit in a new way.
A Time of Change
One layer of rocks that lies exposed on the continent dates back to the end of the Cretaceous and beginning of the Paleogene, between 40 and 100 million years ago. This time period is known as the K-Pg boundary, and it serves as the dividing line between the age of dinosaurs and the age of mammals. During this window, some 66 million years ago, roughly 65 percent of life on the planet died out, paving the way for mammals to rise to dominance. Back then, Antarctica was a far different land, covered in vegetation and populated by dinosaurs, ancient birds and mammals. Prehistoric marine reptiles swam in the seas off the continent's coasts. Antarctica today is a time capsule of that era, where relics of a poorly understood yet immensely critical moment in Earth's history lie frozen in the ground.
