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Fly fossil found in Antarctica
Netscape ^ | May 25, 2003

Posted on 05/25/2003 10:13:36 AM PDT by byteback

It's just a tiny fossil of a fly that scientists found some 300 miles from the South Pole. But this fossil will help them: --figure out what life was like millions of years ago in ancient Antarctica and --help explain global changes in today's climate. One of the biggest surprises of the discovery: No one even knew there were flies in this frozen land where summer temperatures are a bone-chilling 20 degrees below zero. The fly fossil is from the Cyclorrhapha family, the so-called "higher flies" that include the common housefly, reports CNN.

North Dakota State University geologist Allan Ashworth, who found the fossil and is recognized as a pioneer in using insect fossils to research climate changes, speculates that flies could have existed during a short-lived warm spell in Antarctica several million years ago. They could also have been part of the animal life on a mega-continent called Gondwana that later split up and formed Antarctica, South America, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa. Finding such fossils is "painstaking stuff," Ashworth admitted. But the payoff can be huge because so much can be learned from them. CNN reports that the fossil Ashworth found in Antarctica is 5 to 7.5 millimeters long. The fly is actually in the puparium stage, which is similar to the butterfly's cocoon state--a transition period between the larva and adult insect.

So now the big question to be pondered: If a warm spell in Antarctica allowed the fly to live there, what caused the temperatures to rise? Some 15 million years ago, it was not greenhouse gases to blame. So what was it? This ancient clue could help scientists learn more about global warming now. The findings were published in the British journal Nature.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antarctica; archaeology; ggg; globalwarming; godsgravesglyphs; history
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I bet Gore knows the answer.
1 posted on 05/25/2003 10:13:36 AM PDT by byteback
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To: byteback
Fly fossil found in Antarctica

SERIESLY HUGH NEWS

2 posted on 05/25/2003 10:17:10 AM PDT by Mister Baredog ((They wanted to kill 50,000 of us on 9/11, we will never forget!))
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To: byteback
Gore is a inventet fosils.
3 posted on 05/25/2003 10:17:50 AM PDT by ChadGore (Frustrate one liberal a day, that's all we ask.)
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To: ChadGore
Gore invented flies too!
4 posted on 05/25/2003 10:18:51 AM PDT by Khepera (Do not remove by penalty of law!)
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To: Mister Baredog
Re: HUGH NEWS

Thus is hugh.

5 posted on 05/25/2003 10:20:39 AM PDT by ChadGore (Frustrate one liberal a day, that's all we ask.)
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To: byteback
Okay, who left the screen door to Antarctica open?
6 posted on 05/25/2003 10:21:10 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: byteback
and --help explain global changes in today's climate

The fly was found sitting in a tiny SUV.

7 posted on 05/25/2003 10:21:33 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: byteback

8 posted on 05/25/2003 10:26:02 AM PDT by ALS ("The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." A. E.)
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To: Larry Lucido
Re: The fly was found sitting in a tiny SUV.

ROFL ! smoking a tiny cigar, eating tiny take out food.

9 posted on 05/25/2003 10:26:29 AM PDT by ChadGore (Frustrate one liberal a day, that's all we ask.)
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To: byteback
They could also have been part of the animal life on a mega-continent called Gondwana that later split up and formed Antarctica, South America, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa...

Later in the article they talked of a warming period 15 mya which is confusing because Gondwana ceased to exist about 95 mya when splitting off of Austrailia .

10 posted on 05/25/2003 10:26:39 AM PDT by Mike Darancette (Soddom has left the bunker.)
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To: Mike Darancette
Cool site showing past and future continental drift
11 posted on 05/25/2003 10:35:40 AM PDT by martin_fierro (A v v n c v l v s M a x i m v s)
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To: byteback
If a warm spell in Antarctica allowed the fly to live there, what caused the temperatures to rise?

Biblically, a better question is "what caused the temperatures in Antarctica to fall?"

12 posted on 05/25/2003 10:39:49 AM PDT by HalfFull
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To: byteback

The little bugger was wearing lots and lots of polyester.

13 posted on 05/25/2003 10:41:49 AM PDT by martin_fierro (A v v n c v l v s M a x i m v s)
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To: All
Anyone else here think this guy could be useful in Iraq? ;-)
14 posted on 05/25/2003 10:43:25 AM PDT by Normal4me (I am a militant conservative according to Petah Jennings. I LIKE it!)
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To: Larry Lucido
Maybe the flies rode in on those rocks from Mars. If they had stayed on Mars they would've probably evolved into alligators or even chimpanzees by now.

Sounds like the world underwent a cataclysmic change in climate in it's ancient past. More scientists adhere to catastrophism than ever before. And gradualism has gradually given way to punctuated equilibrium [the hopeful monster] in the evolutionary perspective. It's not creationism, but is much closer to it than when I was in high school 30 years ago. Velikovsky is not considered as heretical as he was when he published his work Worlds in Collision in 1950.

15 posted on 05/25/2003 10:43:51 AM PDT by razorbak
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To: All
Thank God for this discovery! We'll finally put the "human cause" of global warming to rest!!!!! Of course, it will turn out that a Frenchman was there just a-cookin his dinner after searching for gold. Alas, he was from California and inadvertantly brought some flies with him in his raunch, smelly clothes.
16 posted on 05/25/2003 10:45:19 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: martin_fierro
How did they know this fly was a fossil?
Well, modern day flies have zippers.  This
fly was zipless, and thus ancient.
17 posted on 05/25/2003 10:47:42 AM PDT by gcruse (Vice is nice, but virtue can hurt you. --Bill Bennett)
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To: byteback
Shoo fly, don't bother me!
18 posted on 05/25/2003 10:51:13 AM PDT by b4its2late (Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they are sticking to their diets.)
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To: byteback
Much of the science explaining continental drift has developed since I was in school so I have little expertise.

However, if the continents drift relative to each other, then they must certainly drift relative to the axis of rotation of the earth. This means that the "seasons" which are experienced can vary on any given continent independently of the average temperature of the earth.

The more surprising result might be if it was determined that there had never been flies on a particular continent. I suppose that the 15 mya time frame suggests that Antartica was located at the south pole roughly where it is now.

19 posted on 05/25/2003 11:17:57 AM PDT by William Tell
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To: byteback
You mean Gore left his fly open.
20 posted on 05/25/2003 11:23:27 AM PDT by Licensed-To-Carry (They run into our machine guns and we shoot them down like the morons they are.)
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