Saturday Science: Fossils From Way Down Under

Photo:  University of Queensland

As far under as you can get: Antarctica, to be exact.

"It's a very hard place to work, but it's an even harder place to get to," Steve Salisbury, a researcher at the University of Queensland and one of the scientists on the expedition, says in a release.

Salisbury was one of 12 scientists from the U.S., Australia and South Africa that ventured south on a fossil hunting mission to James Ross Island, located on the Antarctic Peninsula. Over five weeks, the team camped on Vega island, hiking over six miles a day to to reach their main hunting grounds where they systematically sorted through rocks.

The scientists retrieved over a ton of fossils from ancient marine creatures, dinosaurs and birds that lived during the late Cretaceous Period. The massive stash could take years for them to catalog and study. For now, they say, the fossils will make their way to Chile and then Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

In case you're thinking "How weird! How could dinosaurs live in Antarctica?" keep in mind that Antarctica wasn't always where it is now, and that at various times, the earth has been much warmer than it is now. So it only stands to reason that there would be fossils there; the only real problem is getting at them. It's not what you call ideal working conditions.

There's video at the link of an interview with Salisbury that gives an idea of what it was like just getting ready to work.