90 million years ago, Antarctica was far from the white, icy continent it is today. This is suggested by the discovery of a small piece of amber during scientific drilling carried out in the sediments of Pine Island Bay in 2017. This discovery, the first of its kind for this continent, provides important information on the environmental conditions that prevailed in Antarctica during the Late Cretaceous.
Amber, a precious witness to reconstruct past environments
The existence of forests on the White Continent during this warm period in Earth's history is certainly not new, notably thanks to the discovery of plant fossils and pollen during previous expeditions. Until now, however, no amber fragments had been found there. As a reminder, amber is formed by fossilisationfossilisation of resin produced by different species oftreestreesmainly the gymnospermesgymnospermes. This is therefore a particularly valuable testimony, particularly given the fact that during its flow, the resin can capture and preserve numerous biological inclusions. We of course think of insects, but the analysis of amber fragments often reveals the presence of very diverse organic residues. So many exceptionally preserved clues from the passage of time which make it possible to precisely reconstruct a ecosystemecosystem now disappeared.
Bark micro-inclusions
Fragments found during the expedition RV Polarstern PS104 are only a few millimeters, but their analysis already provides very interesting results, which have just been published in the journal Antarctic Science. The amber turns out to be of very good quality and contains traces of bark which help scientists paint the portrait of a temperate foresttemperate forest rich in conifers!
