Off to the end of the world.
This is my first blog post (ever!). The entries of this blog will cover my research and other tangible topics. I’ll mostly try to keep posts short, sweet, and illustrated. Since I’m currently stuck in New Zealand waiting to head south, I thought it would be great to kick off this blog with a brief overview of my Antarctic trip. Apologies for the rigidity in this first post (writing this in a hurry). Well here goes nothing!
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It's not obvious by looking at the frozen swaths of Antarctica today, but in the distant past the continent was home to expansive forests that contained many strange and peculiar plants. I’m part of a research team that is focused on recovering the fossils that composed these forests hundreds of millions of years ago. More specifically, we are interested in ancient plants from rock outcrops within the Shackleton Glacier area of the Transantarctic mountains. The deposits in this area comprise a continuous succession of Permian (299-252 Ma) and Triassic (252-201 MA) exposures, including a rare terrestrial Permo-Triassic boundary, which marks the largest of all mass extinctions and is often referred to as the Great Dying. Therefore, fossil and other geologic data recovered from the Shackleton area is essential for reconstructing past changes in biodiversity (extinction, diversification, and ecosystem recovery patterns) and environments, which is important for understanding the biotic and climatic crises that we face today.
This year’s interdisciplinary field crew includes seven members: Rudolph Serbet (paleobotany; University of Kansas), Patricia Ryberg (paleobotany, Park University), John Isbell (sedimentology/stratigraphy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee [UWM]), Erik Gulbranson (geochemistry, UWM), Libby Ives (sedimentology/stratigraphy, UWM), Danny Uhlmann (our mountaineer), and myself. We’ll spend roughly two months in the field.
Tomorrow, we leave Christchurch and head to McMurdo station, the largest base on the continent.To say the least, going down to Antarctica to collect fossil plants will be an experience of a life time. I’m very excited (and anxious) for this trip. Personally, I’ll be searching for the unexpected and new. Paleontologists love surprises after all... Looking forward to sharing my experiences so stay tuned for more!
P.S.
To learn more about this exciting collaborative project check out the links below!
Erik has been interviewed about the project by a number of news outlets: