During the Early Cretaceous period, Gondwana was the main continent that connected Antarctica with other continents such as Africa, Australia, and South America. Consequently, this land was home to many dinosaurs related to the Dinosauria species, including theropods and ornithopods, whose incredible fossil footprints provide us with information about their life in coniferous forests and pteridophyte forests. Thus, this great discovery represents a new path in understanding the evolutionary adaptations and even the metabolism of these living beings in these specific ecosystems. Read on to learn more about this great discovery in the field of paleontology.
Picture this image in your mind: dinosaurs moving around
If ancient animal life and evolution is one of your main hobby, then the subject of dinosaurs should be at the core of your interest. Picture this: you wake up and the world moves in front of you and goes back in time over 120 million years ago, and you’re seeing dinosaurs moving all around in a time where darkness was sure to happen on earth, in specific in Antarctica. For most people, this might sound like a horror story. Let’s dive into this rabbit hole together.
Deeping in the location and authenticity of the “fossil claims”
Throughout the exhange we have ongoing here in this article, there will be somereferences made to a period on our planet named as the Early Cretaceous phase. The Early Cretaceous phase is a geological time within our planet that lasted close to 145 to 100.5 million years ago.
For the sake of this article, we will in particular be focused on Antarctica, about 120 million years ago. In this time, Antarctica was still much linked to Gondwana, the supercontinent. Instead of the common icy caps scattered all over the continent as we concieve it nowadays, the land was draped in temperate forests. Fossilized pollen, spores, and petrified wood show landscapes full filled with conifers, ferns, and mosses.
Studying the Fossil Evidence that we have obtained at this point
The fossil evidence that we have currnetly was located in Southern Australia, which is still a part of the supercontinent, Gondwana. This prove is in the way of footprints, and they belong to theropod and ornithopod tracks from around 121-127 million years ago.
Lately, archaeologists have been able to get various fossils from Antarctica that prove that the fossil prove depicting theropod tracks are indeed not false. The footprint sizes in particular depict randomized seasonal conducts within the dinosaur group.
The way these achievement modified the story of polar life
For a long time, paleontologists understood that polar extremes limited dinosaur life to seasonal visits or migrations. However, the diversity of fossil proves suggests otherwise. The Dinosaurs in question had already modfied their way of living to a mode of existence without sunlight for long periods, such as the discovery of an ancient, strange lifeform in Texas.
The way they did this still being an issue of debate. Some investigators explain that dinosaurs were warm-blooded, their higher metabolisms aiding them endure colder periods. Others underlines to evidence of feathers and insulation between smaller species. Large herbivores may have trusted on fat reserves or modified diets to survive by the time plants went dormant.
Bottlenecks are disturbing interpretations of the fossil footprints
In light of the new achievement, how true is the fact that the dinosaurs in question stayed year-round as opposed to immigrating to other areas during periods of long and dark winters? It is interesting to be conscious of the fact that most of the proves pertaining to the fossils we have are footprints. But they are fragmentary, which implies that these footprints could be more common than bones in some locations.
What the future holds, in specific for polar dinosaurs
The welfare of consistent and persistent investigation have been in particular evident in the discovery of polar dinosaurs. This is the main reason of why scientists and researchers all along many regions within Antarctica are springing up with the main objective of detecting recent fossils that show many more hidden secrets within the area.
