First discovery of Antarctic amber [Short note]

Here, we report the first discovery of Antarctic fossil resin (commonly referred to as amber) within a ~5 cm-thick lignite layer, which constitutes the top part of a ~3 m-long palynomorph-rich and root-bearing carbonaceous mudstone of mid-Cretaceous age (Klages et al. 2020). The sedimentary sequence (Fig. 1) was recovered by the MARUM-MeBo70 seafloor drill rig at Site PS104_20 (73.57° S, 107.09° W; 946 m water depth) from the mid-shelf section of Pine Island trough in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, during RV Polarstern Expedition PS104 in early 2017 (Gohl 2017; Fig. 1a). So far, amber deposits have been described from every continent except Antarctica (Langenheim 2003, Quinney et al. 2015; Fig. 1a).

Details

Publication status:
Published Online
Author(s):
Authors: Klages, Johann P., Gerschel, Henny, Salzmann, U., Nehrke, G., Müller, J., Hillenbrand, C.-D. ORCIDORCID record for C.-D. Hillenbrand, Bohaty, S.M., Bickert, T.

On this site: Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
Date:
12 November, 2024
Journal/Source:
Antarctic Science
Page(s):
2pp
Link to published article:
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102024000208