Antarctica...how cold?

["Stephen Priestley" <stephen_priestley@sunshine.net>]

Larry,

I think _Lystrosaurus_ in Antarctica would be limited to the earliest
Triassic. Gillian King places _L. curvatus_ in the latest Permian of
Zambia. But, further south in the Karoo, lystrosaurs are confined to the
Triassic "_Lystrosaurus_-_Procolophon_ Assemblage Zone" (or whatever the
LystroZone is being called this week!).

Re: pterosaurs. Since forests moderate temperature extremes, it occurs to
me that living in a paleopolar forest would be rather different from flying
above one. Perhaps it is worth looking at the Cretaceous forest on
Alexander Island. Material from that Antarctic forest has recently been
compared to the mid-Jurassic petrified forest at Curio Bay, South Island,
NZ. There seems to be little to distinguish it from non-paleopolar forests
-- density being comparable to low-to-mid latitude temperate forests of
today.

(The Curio Bay stuff was written up in either Paleo3 or PalaeoBotany.
Anyone have that reference?)

Stephen Priestley