Evening star., 1951-12-21
Antarctic Evidence
Of Life Examined
Carnegie Scientist Finds Clues
To Warm South Continent
By Thomas R. Henry


The farthest south traces Of life On
this planet have been tentatively ideR-
fed by a Carnegie Institution botanist.
They are from q collection of sup
posedly fossil plants collected by MEM
bers Of the 1884 expedition led by
Admiral Richard E. Byrd from the sides
Of -foot-high Mount Weaver.
within little more than 200 miles from
the South Pole.
This great black mountain protrudes
out Of the Antarctic ice at the southern
portal Of the great Thorne glacier, one
of the enormous ice rivers emptying
into the Ross Sea, where it breaks up
into glaciers which drift slowly north
ward. There members of the Byrd ex-
pedition found enormous coal beds and
fossilized tree sections up to Is inches
in diameter.
The coal supposedly was formed dur
ing the late carboniferous geological
period about 300, ,000.0 900 years ago when.
for some unknown reason, the Antarc-
tic continent, now buried thousands OF
feet under ice, was warmer and pre-
sumably covered by very heavy vegeta-
ton.
Tree Ferns Identified.
Studying the fossils, DR.. Lyman H.
Daugherty of the Carnegie Institution
division of plant biology. had no diff
Guilty in identifying two species Of CLOS
sopteris, tree fern found widely scat
tered in fossil form over the Southern
Hemisphere. This has been one major
argument for the thesis that at one
80 - I'D Aefo
Australia and the present Antarctic
continent formed one great land mass.
which broke up and drifted apart. DR..
Daugherty also found giant tree fern
of quite a different species.
Totally unexpected is his tentative
identification of fossil footprint found
in the Mount Weaver rock as that OF o
mammal-like reptile. The reptiles, des-
tined to dominate the earth In the next
geological era, were only beginning TO
appear on earth during the carbonif-
erous. Dominant land creatures were
giant amphibians.
The mammal-like forms found are
highly developed types destined even
tuaDy to evolve into warm blooded ami
mails. This may be some indication that
Antarctic continent may have been an
extremely advanced land in its life
forms. compared with the rest Of the
world. There Is also the possibility, DR..
Daugherty says, that the continental
rocks may not be as old as estimated.
Preservation Of Fossils Good.
The fossils, preservation Of which is
superior to that Of most found in
Antarctica, indicate that the continent
had cool, moist climate, perhaps char
. acterized by dry season.
If the ancient landscape can be recon-
structed from the present, Mount Weaver
must have stood at the head Of fairly
swift river, about Is miles wide at its
mouth, which flowed out of high
plateau around the Pole. This river
became the Thorne glacier Of today,
which Admiral Byrd predicted In his
last expedition might constitute the best
air passage to the Pole, although the
route Is somewhat longer than that by
some of the other great Ross Sea
glaciers.
The tree ferns represented by the
fossils apparently constituted the most
abundant form Of vegetation over most
of the world, and they form the SUBJ
stance Of the great coal deposits. These
nare enormous in the Antarctic, although
the coal itself is Of rather low grade
and probably Of value only when pres
ent supplies near exhaustion.
The rocks Of Antarctica doubtless are
fun of fossils but these cannot be found
under the ice. This is one of the first
indications Of land vertebrate of any
sort in the lands around the South Pole.