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Science 15 October 1982:
Vol. 218. no. 4569, pp. 284 - 286
DOI: 10.1126/science.218.4569.284
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Articles

Fossil Land Mammal from Antarctica

MICHAEL O. WOODBURNE 1 and WILLIAM J. ZINSMEISTER 2

1 Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside 92521
2 Institute of Polar Studies and Department of Geology, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210

A fossil land mammal, apparently the first found in Antarctica, belongs to the extinct marsupial family Polydolopidae. The fossils were recovered from rocks about 40 million years old on Seymour Island, in the northern Antarctic Peninsula. The newly discovered marsupials support theories that predicted their former presence in Antarctica and strengthen proposals that Australian marsupials perhaps originated from South American species that dispersed across Antarctica when Australia still was attached to it, prior to 56 million years ago.

Submitted on April 20, 1982
Revised on July 1, 1982


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A Bizarre New Family of Marsupialia (Incertae sedis) from the Early Pliocene of Northeastern Australia: Implications for the Phylogeny of Bunodont Marsupials.
R. M. D. Beck, M. Archer, H. Godthelp, B. S. Mackness, S. J. Hand, and J. Muirhead (2008)
Journal of Paleontology 82, 749-762
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The late Middle Eocene terrestrial vertebrate fauna from Seymour Island: the tails of the Eocene Patagonian size distribution.
J. A. Case (2006)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 258, 177-186
   Abstract »    PDF »
Decapod crustaceans from the Eocene La Meseta Formation, Seymour Island, Antarctica: a model for preservation of decapods.
R. M. Feldmann, R.M. Feldmann, C.E. Schweitzer, and S.A. Marenssi (2003)
Journal of the Geological Society 160, 151-160
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The nature and timing of biotic links between New Zealand and Antarctica in Mesozoic and early Cenozoic times.
G. R. Stevens (1989)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 47, 141-166
   Abstract »    PDF »
Antarctica: the effect of high latitude heterochroneity on the origin of the Australian marsupials.
J. A. Case (1989)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 47, 217-226
   Abstract »    PDF »
The origin of the Southern Ocean marine fauna.
A. Clarke and J. A. Crame (1989)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 47, 253-268
   Abstract »    PDF »
Cenozoic High Latitude Heterochroneity of Southern Hemisphere Marine Faunas.
W. J. Zinsmeister, W. J. ZINSMEISTER, and R. M. FELDMANN (1984)
Science 224, 281-283
   Abstract »    PDF »


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