Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Fly fossil found in Antarctica
Netscape ^ | May 25, 2003

Posted on 05/25/2003 10:13:36 AM PDT by byteback

It's just a tiny fossil of a fly that scientists found some 300 miles from the South Pole. But this fossil will help them: --figure out what life was like millions of years ago in ancient Antarctica and --help explain global changes in today's climate. One of the biggest surprises of the discovery: No one even knew there were flies in this frozen land where summer temperatures are a bone-chilling 20 degrees below zero. The fly fossil is from the Cyclorrhapha family, the so-called "higher flies" that include the common housefly, reports CNN.

North Dakota State University geologist Allan Ashworth, who found the fossil and is recognized as a pioneer in using insect fossils to research climate changes, speculates that flies could have existed during a short-lived warm spell in Antarctica several million years ago. They could also have been part of the animal life on a mega-continent called Gondwana that later split up and formed Antarctica, South America, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa. Finding such fossils is "painstaking stuff," Ashworth admitted. But the payoff can be huge because so much can be learned from them. CNN reports that the fossil Ashworth found in Antarctica is 5 to 7.5 millimeters long. The fly is actually in the puparium stage, which is similar to the butterfly's cocoon state--a transition period between the larva and adult insect.

So now the big question to be pondered: If a warm spell in Antarctica allowed the fly to live there, what caused the temperatures to rise? Some 15 million years ago, it was not greenhouse gases to blame. So what was it? This ancient clue could help scientists learn more about global warming now. The findings were published in the British journal Nature.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antarctica; archaeology; ggg; globalwarming; godsgravesglyphs; history
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-32 last
To: byteback
I'll bet God knows the answer!
21 posted on 05/25/2003 11:23:44 AM PDT by LiteKeeper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: byteback
1(one) Fly......
I don't suppose its possible wind currents swept the fly up to higher zones from somewhere else and deposited it there where it immedialtely froze NAH!... Heck they find spiders way high in the air colunm....regularly.. to be deposited in other CONTINENTS... why not flys...

finding the fly was dumb luck..?
Why not...

22 posted on 05/25/2003 11:43:26 AM PDT by hosepipe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: byteback
How do we know the fossil didn't come from mars like that rock they found a year or so back ? Maybe this is proof of extraterrestial life !!!!! ;-) ;-) ;-)

Seriously though the line :

It's just a tiny fossil of a fly that scientists found some 300 miles from the South Pole. But this fossil will help them: --figure out what life was like millions of years ago in ancient Antarctica and --help explain global changes in today's climate

Says it all.

Did anyone ever watch that old game show called liars club ? This is somehow related..........

The only fact will be they found a fly fossil in antartica.

But what will be taught as fact is all manner of extrapolation of personal views and agendas by "scientists" or at least by "scientists that are smart enough to only say the approved truth" the other kind don't count............

Sigh.....
23 posted on 05/25/2003 12:18:25 PM PDT by festus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: byteback

24 posted on 05/25/2003 12:27:20 PM PDT by COBOL2Java
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HalfFull

Biblically, a better question is "what caused the temperatures in Antarctica to fall?"

Which time?

Global Temperature and Atmospheric CO2 over Geologic Time 

 


 

Ice Ages & Astronomical Causes
Brief Introduction to the History of Climate
by Richard A. Muller

Origin of the 100 kyr Glacial Cycle

 

Climate for the last 420 kyr, from Vostok ice

25 posted on 05/25/2003 6:58:23 PM PDT by ancient_geezer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: byteback
I can just hear the fly fossil now: Help me, help me!!!
26 posted on 05/25/2003 7:01:58 PM PDT by mewzilla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ancient_geezer
Nice chart. Didn't know that million of years ago, "they" had little weather men with their stone tablets recording CO2 and temperature variations.
27 posted on 05/26/2003 5:13:38 AM PDT by HalfFull
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: HalfFull
It's called ice,(VOSTOK antartica) containing microscopic bubble samples of the atmosphere.
28 posted on 05/26/2003 8:44:10 AM PDT by ancient_geezer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: HalfFull
PS. You might try reading the article on Coal strata as well. Amazing how CO2 content of the atmosphere affects the growth of vegitation, and the depostitation of carbonate deposits in sediments.

As far as temperature, isotope ratios serve as excellent proxies for temperature.
29 posted on 05/26/2003 8:48:03 AM PDT by ancient_geezer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: ancient_geezer
Now how can that be after all everyone "knows" that the earth is only 6,000 or so years old (/sarcasm)
30 posted on 05/26/2003 8:52:46 AM PDT by clamper1797 (Per caritate viduaribus orphanibusque sed prime viduaribus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: HalfFull
..."what caused the temperatures in Antarctica to fall?"

Global COOLING? From the cigar smoke and the exhaust from the tiny SUV?

31 posted on 05/26/2003 8:53:46 AM PDT by JimRed (Disinformation is the leftist's and enemy's friend; consider the source before believing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest
-- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

32 posted on 05/19/2005 9:05:49 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Tuesday, May 10, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-32 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson