Fossils web quest
1. What were the first fossils found in Antarctica? Where and
when were they found? The first fossil found in Antarctica was
the cycloptersaurous.
2. What was the first dinosaur fossil found in Antarctica? Where
and when was it found? The duck bill
3. What dinosaur fossil was found on Vega Island in 1986? The
Hypsilophodont, a type of small, herbivorous dinosaur, was
discovered in the mudstone layer of Vega Island by the British
Antarctic Survey in 1986.
4. What are the two reasons the fossil found on Vega Island is
of particular importance to understanding the climate and
location of Antarctica millions of years ago? Because there
were plants eaters on Antarctica many years ago and it is cold there
know so if you put that to a conclusion it must have been further
north. The first fossil found on Antarctica.
5. The first dinosaur fossil and the fossil found on Vega Island
in 1986 were representative of what geologic time period?
6. What dinosaur fossil was found in the Transantarctic
Mountains in the summer of 1990-1991? During what
geologic time period did this dinosaur live? Cryolophosaurus
was discovered in 1991 by paleontologist William R. Hammer and
his team on Mount Kirkpatrick, the highest peak in the entire
Queen Alexandra Range of the Transantarctic Mountains.
7. Besides the fossils already discussed, name the other fossil
animals that have been found in Antarctica. It would tell you
that an ocean once existed there and then withdrew
8. Why have so few dinosaur fossils been found in Antarctica?
Today, Antarctica is covered by a thick layer of ice and snow,
making fossil excavation very difficult. Sixty-five million years
ago, when the last of the dinosaurs died out, Antarctica may well
have been much warmer than it is now and it may have supported a
wide variety of plant and animal life. Over the millions of years
since the last dinosaur disappeared our planet's weather has
changed, leaving Antarctica a cold and inhospitable place where
finding evidence of fossils is difficult, if not nearly impossible.
9. Early expeditions to Antarctica reported on seeing fossils,
but they did not collect them. Who first reported seeing
fossils of leaves and stems of plants? Who reported finding
beds of coal near the South Pole? Robert a. Sutton
How do plant fossils and beds of coal support the idea that Antarctica once was
warmer than it is today? There was a lot of vegetation.