page_title: South Polar region of the Cretaceous
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: South Polar region of the Cretaceous / Landscape / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: USGS map of Dinosaur Cove
context_page_description: The South Polar region of the Cretaceous comprised the continent of East Gondwana–modern day Australia and Antarctica–a product of the break-up of Gondwana. The southern region, during this time, was much warmer than it is today, ranging from perhaps 4–8 °C in the latest Cretaceous Maastrichtian in what is now southeastern Australia. This prevented permanent ice sheets from developing and fostered polar forests, which were largely dominated by conifers, cycads, and ferns, and relied on a temperate climate and heavy rainfall. Major fossil-bearing geological formations that record this area are: the Santa Marta and Sobral Formations of Seymour Island off the Antarctic Peninsula; the Snow Hill Island, Lopez de Bertodano, and the Hidden Lake Formations on James Ross Island also off the Antarctic Peninsula; and the Eumeralla and Wonthaggi Formations in Australia.
  The South Polar region housed many endemic species, including several relict forms that had gone extinct elsewhere by the Cretaceous. Of the dinosaur assemblage, the most diverse were the small hypsilophodont-like dinosaurs. The South Polar region also was home to the last labyrinthodont amphibian, Koolasuchus.
context_section_description: The Latady Basin in the southern Antarctic Peninsula–Palmer Land–contains volcanic rock, evidencing a large magmatic event in the Middle Cretaceous referred to as the Palmer Land event. This area has yielded an array of both macro- and micro- plant and mollusk fossils representative of the Early Cretaceous, as well as the Middle to Late Jurassic. The area that is now the Antarctic Peninsula, throughout the Mesozoic, was subducting the proto-Pacific plate, causing volcanic activity.
  An important fossil-bearing formation is the Santa Marta Formation at James Ross Island off the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the most significant formations of the Southern Hemisphere, representing a high diversity terrestrial flora and fauna of the Late Cretaceous polar region. Seymour Island is similar in this respect, the area of discovery for vertebrate and invertebrate creatures–such as plesiosaurs–of the Late Cretaceous, extending into the Eocene. Other Cretaceous fossil-bearing formations in Antarctica are the Snow Hill Island Formation, the Lopez de Bertodano Formation, and the Hidden Lake Formation, also on James Ross Island.
  The Eumeralla Formation of Dinosaur Cove and the Wonthaggi Formation in Victoria, Australia, contain a number of dinosaur fossils and tracks from the Early Cretaceous. The Tahora Formation represents the reptile assemblage of Cretaceous New Zealand.
  The Eromanga Sea was an inland sea across what would be Australia that formed in the Early Cretaceous. The sea reached the Eromanga Basin from the north via the Carpentarian Basin. The southern end of the sea comprised lagoons and rivers, and to the east in Surat Basin a bay. When India drifted away from Australia in the Early Cretaceous, the Perth Basin also filled with seawater. The area that would be the Coral Sea was a rift valley. As Australia and Antarctica drifted apart throughout the Cretaceous, a sea formed in between them.
caption: Dinosaur Cove has moved north over the last hundred million years[1]
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