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6.6 Before the ice
Fossil evidence indicates that the Antarctic continent was a much warmer place before the cooling Circumpolar Current isolated the continent from its neighbouring land masses. The sea level was much higher, the polar ice cap much smaller, and parts of the continent contained vegetation similar to today's endemic Tasmanian flora.
- Ask the students to create a fictional landscape of Antarctica based on Antarctica before the present development of ice sheets.
Further information:
Read about the breakup of Gondwana into the continents as we know them today in geology.
The Antarctic prehistory and Antarctic geology pages on the AAD's website also contain useful information.
The Marine Plain page contains an overview of some Antarctic fossils and the plain's valuable contribution to our understanding of prehistoric life there.
DEWR has fact sheets on Australia before time that are full of relevant information.