Search

The Permian Mackellar Formation in the central Transantarctic Mountains is a fine-grained siliciclastic succession, which was deposited in a marine to brackish inland sea (Mackellar Sea) along the hinterland of the Gondwana margin. The Mackellar strata were deposited in an elongate, trough-shaped basin oriented subparallel to the present trend of the Transantarctic Mountains. At the head of the Robb Glacier, the Mackellar beds include, in the middle of the succession, a mass transport deposit, which exhibits folding and thrusting. Structural data (e.g. facing direction and axial planes of overturned folds, orientation and vergence of thrust faults) indicate axial transport down the elongate depositional basin. Unconformable relationships to strata overlying the mass transport deposit suggest reactivation and doming of the deposit following its initial emplacement. Subsequently there was partial collapse of the toe-ward part of the extant deposit along a listric fault, the result of loading by deltaic sandstones of the overlying Fairchild Formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with the fossil record of vascular plants, bryophyte fossils are rare; this circumstance is probably related to a lower preservation potential compared with that of vascular plants. We searched for bryophyte remains in extensive collections of plant-fossil assemblages from the Triassic of Antarctica and identified three assemblages with surprisingly well-preserved bryophyte fossils. Although most bryophyte remains are too fragmented to conclusively place them in a detailed systematic context, they exhibit features sufficient to suggest the presence of at least four types of leafy bryophytes and two orders of thallose liverworts ( Pallaviciniales and Metzgeriales) in the high-latitude Triassic ecosystems of Antarctica. The leafy bryophytes exhibit combinations of morphological features (e.g. keeled and entire-margined, ecostate leaves with elongated cells) that today occur in only a few small, systematically isolated groups, but were common among Palaeozoic and especially Mesozoic bryophytes. The diverse morphologies of the bryophyte fossils add further support to previous hypotheses that during warmer periods in the Earth's history, bryophyte vegetation may have been particularly rich and diverse in high-latitude regions. Through analysis of the sedimentology and taphonomy of these assemblages, we identify a combination of key factors that may explain the preservation of bryophyte fossils in these deposits: (1) punctuated, high-energetic sedimentary events causing traumatic removal and incorporation of bryophytes into sediment-laden flood waters; (2) limited transport distance, and short period of suspension, followed by rapid settling and burial as a result of a rapidly decelerating flow discharging into a floodplain environment; and (3) early-diagenetic cementation with iron hydroxides in locally anoxic zones of the organic-rich, muddy substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permian and Triassic lacustrine and fluvial-system deposits in the Beardmore Glacier area of the Transantarctic Mountains preserve a superb record of continental environments and evidence of life on extensive bedding plane exposures. They yielded the first invertebrate trackways reported from continental Permo-Triassic deposits of Antarctica, here assigned to the ichnogenera Diplichnites and Diplopodichnus, which were probably produced by myriapodous arthropods. A resting trace is compared to Orbiculichnus and interpreted as generated by a jumping insect. Plant life is represented by leaf impressions, fossil forests and peat, vertebrates by body and trace fossils, and invertebrate shallow infauna by near surface burrows. The small number and diversity of trackways recovered from the large bedding plane exposures suggest that trackway-producing arthropods were rare at these high southern palaeolatitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the age and paleoenvironmental implications of late conchostracan from the Shackleton Glacier area in Antarctica. Occurrence of conchostracans in siliciclastic sediments; Composition of the Pagoda Formation; Interruption of deposition from suspension within the lake.

Basal rocks of the Upper Carboniferous to Lower Permian Pagoda Formation at Mount Butters provide an unusual view of periglacial conditions in the central Transantarctic Mountains region prior to the initial advance of the Gondwanide ice sheet. These rocks were deposited on a high relief unconformity that developed on granite. Deposition within relief on the unconformity, possibly in the lee of a granite buttress, protected the rocks from erosion during subsequent overriding by the ice sheet. The succession reflects deposition in a glacial-fed to ice-contact lake that contained a freshwater crustacean fauna. Centimetre- to decimetre-scale basal layers include breccia and coarse-grained sandstone. The occurrence of breccia resting on weathered granite suggests sedimentation as scree and as mass flow deposits. Overlying decimetre-to metre-scale stratified diamictites interbedded with metre-scale, coarsening-upward successions of siltstone to cross-laminated sandstone suggest lacustrine deposition by suspension settling, rain out of ice-rafted debris, and deltaic progradation. Thin zones with abundant conchostracans and/or with prolific trace fossils, in addition to less common remains of other crustaceans, attest to the presence of a low diversity benthic fauna. Conchostracans are concentrated in a series of thin beds that reflect moderately lengthy, perhaps seasonal, periods of free-flowing water. Patchy vertical and lateral distribution of intense bioturbation and profuse trace fossils probably reflect repeated colonization events during times of favourable environmental conditions. Massive diamictite overlies the basal rocks and indicates that the ice-marginal lake was subsequently overridden by the late Palaeozoic ice sheet. Occurrences of lodgement till, glacitectonite and deformation till suggest deposition from temperate or warm-based ice, whereas underlying lacustrine and deltaic deposits, along with a crustacean and trace fossil fauna, suggest temperate... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the stratigraphic background of Upper Carboniferous and Permian rocks found in glaciers in Antarctica. Description of geologic strata in the region; Definition of outcrop belts of rocks; Comparison of strata.

Focuses on the discovery of crayfish fossils in Antarctica, in 1998 which indicate that freshwater crayfish evolved at least 65 million years earlier. Implications of evolutionary, behavioral and biogeographic; Description of the fossils; Examination of marine-to-freshwater transition of astacideans.