‘Real-life Loch Ness Monster’ fossil found in Antarctica
Scientists recently discovered the fossilized remains of a 70 million-year-old elasmosaur in Antarctica, which previously weighed up to 15 tons, making it one of the largest of its kind ever found. Fossil hunters are calling the find a real-life Lock Ness monster, as many believe that Nessie is a long-necked plesiosaur, like an elasmosaurus. It is now one of the most complete fossils of ancient reptiles ever discovered.
German researchers discovered marine life along the Antarctic seabed for the first time in decades after a huge iceberg broke off the continent’s ice sheet last month.
The iceberg, nicknamed A-74, broke free about two weeks ago and started sailing the Weddell Sea.
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As the only research vessel in the vicinity, the Polarstern research icebreaker took the opportunity to explore, bridging the gap between the A-74 and Brunt’s ice shelf.
Life on Antactic Seafloor, where the giant iceberg A74 left the Brunt ice shelf (near the Weddell Sea) two weeks before scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute and international colleagues arrived in the area with Polarstern RV. Photos taken with OFOBS (Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System). An anonymity of the sea 10 cm in diameter uses a small stone as a substrate. Various shrimp and small fish can be part of this animal’s diet under ice.
(ALFRED-WEGENER-INSTITUT)
His team was composed of scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and other international partners, according to a press release on Wednesday.
“Unique in life” photographs captured by the crew revealed an “incredible level of biodiversity and sediment samples taken from the seabed” should provide more detailed insights into the ecosystem “.
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In addition, the geochemical analysis of the collected water samples will make it possible to draw conclusions about their content of nutrients and ocean currents.
Video images and an extensive collection of photos taken with OFOBS (Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System) exposed life well below the surface and various organisms surrounded by a muddy landscape.
The OFOBOS seabed observation and bathymetry system aboard the Polarstern research ship
(ALFRED-WEGENER-INSTITUT)
Most of these creatures were filters, although experts also found sea cucumbers, starfish, mollusks, at least five species of fish and two species of squid.
Hundreds of marine species live in Antarctic waters, but, as LiveScience reported on Friday, the presence of stationary feeder filters that eat phytoplankton – which depend on sunlight for photosynthesis – meters under the ice was surprising.
AWI noted in the statement that research was essential to better understand birth events and that it is rare to be near a region that becomes free of ice and in contact with sunlight – especially for icebergs as large as the A-74 .
The team also positioned research buoys in the area to collect data on water temperature, salinity and ocean current speeds.
It is a move they believe will help scientists make more accurate climate models for the region, as Antarctica continues to lose mass of ice at alarming rates.
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“This data forms the basis for our simulations of how the ice sheet will respond to climate change. As a result, we can say with a greater degree of certainty how quickly sea levels will rise in the future – and will provide the political community and society with generally with solid data for making decisions on the necessary measures to adapt to climate change, “said the physical oceanographer and chief of the AWI expedition, Dr. Hartmut Hellmer.