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SUMMARY:Fossil pollen and algae reveal Antarctica’s climate as the dinos
 aurs died out 66 million years ago - Vanessa Bowman (British Antarctic Sur
 vey)
DTSTART:20141127T130000Z
DTEND:20141127T133000Z
UID:TALK54008@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Dan Jones
DESCRIPTION:Organic-walled microfossils called “palynomorphs” are tiny
  fossils less than half a millimeter in size. They come from land plants (
 terrestrial spores and pollen) and marine algae (dinoflagellate cysts and 
 acritarchs). They are very resistant to destruction and so are found in la
 rge numbers in rock sequences around the Antarctic margin. \nBy studying t
 heir shape\, abundance and distribution through these rock sequences\, the
 se terrestrial and marine palynomorphs can help unravel climate change and
  major environmental catastrophes in the geological past. One such event o
 ccurred at the end of the Cretaceous\, 66 million years ago\, when a major
  mass extinction caused the demise of dinosaurs and many other organisms.\
 nThe highest latitude exposure of Cretaceous rocks in the Southern Hemisph
 ere is on Seymour Island\, in the James Ross Basin at the northeast tip of
  the Antarctic Peninsula. From here we have collected exceptionally well-p
 reserved palynomorphs that are revealing a detailed picture of polar clima
 tes and vegetation that grew on Antarctica millions of years ago. At that 
 time global climate was much warmer than today and Antarctica was covered 
 in forests.\nFossil spores and pollen show that southern beech and conifer
  forests\, like those that live in Patagonia today\, grew on lowlands on t
 he volcanic arc that formed the spine of the Antarctic Peninsula. In the a
 djacent ocean\, cold-water dinoflagellate cysts show that the ocean may ha
 ve been cold enough for winter sea ice suggesting that the end of the Cret
 aceous there may have been glaciers in the interior of Antarctica. The pal
 ynomorphs also show that about two million years before the end of the Cre
 taceous the climate warmed considerably\, possibly the result of massive v
 olcanic eruptions in India. Did this climate change cause the extinction o
 f dinosaurs on Antarctica?\n
LOCATION:British Antarctic Survey\, conference room
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