Evidence of hibernation-like state in Antarctic animal

EurekAlert! ^ | August 27, 2020 | Harvard University, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

[SunkenCiv]

...scientists at Harvard University and the University of Washington report evidence of a hibernation-like state in an animal that lived in Antarctica during the Early Triassic, some 250 million years ago.

The creature, a member of the genus Lystrosaurus, was a distant relative of mammals. Lystrosaurus were common during the Permian and Triassic periods and are characterized by their turtle-like beaks and ever-growing tusks...

Lystrosaurus arose before Earth's largest mass extinction at the end of the Permian Period... and spread across swathes of Earth's then-single continent, Pangea, which included what is now Antarctica...

Today, paleontologists find Lystrosaurus fossils in India, China, Russia, parts of Africa and Antarctica. The creatures grew to be 6 to 8 feet long, had no teeth, but bore a pair of tusks in the upper jaw...

The tusks from the two regions showed similar growth patterns, with layers of dentine deposited in concentric circles like tree rings. The Antarctic fossils, however, held an additional feature that was rare or absent in tusks farther north: closely-spaced, thick rings, which likely indicate periods of less deposition due to prolonged stress, according to the researchers...

The researchers cannot definitively conclude that Lystrosaurus underwent true hibernation. The stress could have been caused by another hibernation-like form of torpor, such as a more short-term reduction in metabolism. Lystrosaurus in Antarctica likely needed some form of hibernation-like adaptation to cope with life near the South Pole, said Whitney. Though Earth was much warmer during the Triassic than today -- and parts of Antarctica may have been forested -- plants and animals below the Antarctic Circle would still experience extreme annual variations in the amount of daylight, with the sun absent for long periods in winter.

[SunkenCiv]

Life restoration of Lystrosaurus in a state of torpor

Credit: Crystal Shin

[SunkenCiv]

[BenLurkin]

He’s cute!

[BradyLS]

There was a time when these ruled the earth shortly after the Permian-Triassic extinction event.

[PAR35]

The bad news is that they have just been sleeping all these years, and global warming is going to wake them up.

A bit hairy for an early Triassic.

[SunkenCiv]

I don't know what else was in that hibernation contest, but this guy won.

[Deaf Smith]

Antarctica was not at the South Pole 250 million years ago and was very much warmer then. With forest and cold blooded dinosaurs.

There was zero need to hibernate.

[SunkenCiv]

History of the Earth: September 21. Triassic Antarctica

[Deaf Smith]

Your link affirms and states that Antartica was a refuge for the super hot climate during that period.

[SunkenCiv]

Within the supercontinent of Pangaea during the Triassic, Antarctica was pretty close to the South Pole, if not quite on top of it. Much of Triassic Antarctica was within the Antarctic Circle, though, and some reliable paleolatitude measurements put parts of the continent as close to the pole as 75° S Latitude. But there were still no glaciers.

So you're glad you read it, right? The reason a critter might hibernate is cool temperatures and restricted food supply brought on by months of darkness, which is one of the points made in topic article here.

[grey_whiskers]

I'm prescient. The first thing I thought of when I read the headline was "Mitch McConnell" and then I read this:

Lystrosaurus were common during the Permian and Triassic periods and are characterized by their turtle-like beaks and ever-growing tusks...

Age, turtle, and tusks (GOP).

Compare your pic to Old Mitch:

[Salamander]

/Laughs in Tardigrade

[Trillian]

I wonder what the prize is?

[SunkenCiv]

An ice cream sandwich, ironically.