Ancient creatures exist in the Arctic winter

Sexually reproducing plants and hippopotamus animals once lived prosperously in the Arctic, where only tundra and white bears remain.

The results of the recent study, detailed in Geology, shed light on the lives of prehistoric mammals that lived on Ellesmere Island, Canada 53 million years ago, including specifying creatures. How did this survive in the darkness during the 6 months of the Arctic winter.

Today, Ellesmere Island, located at the top of the Arctic (about 80 degrees north latitude), is a desolate region with all the permafrost layers of ice below, only scattered a few small plants and some mammals. Temperatures range from -37 degrees F (-38 degrees C) in winter to +48 degrees F (+9 degrees C) in the summer. This region is one of the coldest and driest places on Earth.

But 53 million years ago, the Arctic had a different appearance.

The findings helped humankind better understand the distribution of ancient animals across North America and information regarding today's mammals that are moving northward. dynamics of climate change.

Arctic ancient

In 1975, a result of the research stirred up scientific circles: there were many animals that lived in Ellesmere at the beginning of the Eocene era (55-50 million years ago). Here the team of scientists led by Mary Dawson of Carnegie Museum of Natural History discovered the fossil jaw bone of a crocodile. Since then, more fossils of sea turtles, giant tortoises, snakes and even flying lemurs - one of the first primates on Earth - have also been found.

The new team analyzed the signs of carbon and oxygen in the fossil teeth of three mammals that once lived in the Arctic, with the aim of understanding how the ancient Arctic habitats were. Three species analyzed include: Coryphodon, half-water half-hippo-like creature; the second is a smaller species, the ancestor of today's tapir (animal shaped like a pig, living in South America and Southeast Asia); The third is a rhino-like species, called brontothere.

The research results show that the climate here is warm, humid and mild winter , the temperature in the year may fluctuate from above freezing temperature to nearly 70 degrees Fahrenheit, Jaelyn Eberle - group member study said.

This climate is probably similar to swampy cypress forests in the southeastern United States today, Eberle said. Today, tree fossils are still found to be about the same size as the washing machines here.

Change food sources

In winter, prehistoric mammals are also engulfed in constant darkness like today's Arctic species. When summer comes, they undergo continuous sunlight for several consecutive months.

The results of dental fossil analysis also tell scientists what species of animal they live on, and answer the question of whether they hibernate or migrate in the winter. (This question is also posed for Arctic dinosaurs, Eberle said.)

Coryphodon and its contemporaries on Ellesmere Island are similar to those living in Wyoming and Colorado at the time.

North Pole.(Photo: poligazette)

'They don't seem to have unique, unique characteristics to accommodate the high latitude conditions in the Arctic,' Eberle told LiveScience in an email.

Therefore, many scientists believe that these creatures are actually only individuals from other migratory regions, like today's caribou reindeer, moving through 1000 km to the subarctic forests to avoid winter, Eberle said.

But the new research results did not say so.

Data from fossil teeth indicate that ancient Ellesmere creatures used flowering plants, fallen leaves and marine plants as food. But in the winter, they shifted to eating young twigs, remaining leaves, conifers and mushrooms, Eberle said.

'We used the signs of carbon in the enamel to prove that these mammals did not migrate or hibernate,' Eberle said. 'Instead, they live in the Arctic latitudes all year round, and eat some strange food during the winter months.'

Immigration, old and present

Year-round residence is a condition that determines the distribution of mammals such as Coryphodon, for example, across the high-altitude land bridge connecting the Eurasian continent with North America, Eberle said.

'In order for these animals to survive on the land bridge that once connected the continents, they must be able to live year-round across the high-altitude Arctic region close to this land bridge,' Eberle said.

Fossils also show that creatures such as tapirs originating from the Arctic (this area is the place where the oldest fossils of these animals are found), later they gradually moved south.

'The Arctic is still the' home 'of these animals until people have found more ancient fossils of tapirs and brontothere elsewhere in the world,' Eberle said.

Over millions of years when the Earth's climate got colder, it seemed that the animals moved from the Arctic to the south more and more, the researchers said.

'This study may be the starting point to look at modern mammals, such as hooves - ancestors of modern horses and cattle - and how primates have come to North America. , ' Eberle said.

The study also foresees the effects of global warming on the Arctic flora and fauna, Eberle said.

In the context of climate change, temperatures in the Arctic are increasing twice as fast as those in temperate regions. On Greenland, temperatures have risen 7 degrees F since 1991, according to climate research scientists.

'We are hypothesizing that lower latitude mammals will migrate north when temperatures rise in the next century and millennium,' Eberle said. 'If the temperature rises to the same level as in the Eocene era, it is likely that mammals will migrate across the continent to find suitable land.'

'Let's face it - when the climate changes, an organism will have three choices - adaptable, either movable / dispersed, or extinct,' she concludes.