( an elsewhere in the oceans. They have l...)Seafloor creatures destroyed by ice action during ice ages

an elsewhere in the oceans. They have lower metabolic rates that lower their growth and reproductive rates. Elsewhere in the oceans, a brisingid starfish would reproduce annually and live for ten years. In the Antarctic these starfish can reach 100-years-old but reproduce only once every ten years. This means that full community recuperation takes up to hundreds of years.'

Dr Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand explained: 'Until now it was commonly thought that the destructive action of the ice sheets was not significant enough to eradicate all the fauna and that desolate patches were recolonised from surrounding areas. But our research confirms that the destruction was wholesale with very little surviving. Even today calving icebergs ploughing across the seafloor destroy everything in their path. Imagine the impact of ice sheets during the ice ages that covered a much wider area in a time of lower sea levels.'

The team's research will lead to a radical rethink of the evolutionary history of Antarctica as the work challenges all the accepted theories. The scientists argue that shallow water animals were retreating to the deep ocean and then returning to recolonise Antartica's shelf seas. Clues to how these two very different communities could have achieved this may lie in the animals' DNA.

Sven Thatje continued: 'Our work means that the text books will need to be rewritten. Our next task is to reconstruct what happened in Antarctica during these periods of climate change and study the genetic and biological links between deep sea and shallow water communities.'

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Source:British Antarctic Survey


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