Arctic Ice Blues

[smithjb@sas.upenn.edu (Joshua Smith)]

Home from the north pole, or at least just about as close as you can get 
to it and still be on land, which is the Eocene fossil forest site on 
eastern Axel Heiberg Island in the Candian High Arctic.

It was an amazingly successful and productive five weeks, though I am sad 
that I didn't see any $$$###!!!@@@% polar bears.

Ok, so there don't appear to be any ectotherms preserved at the fossil 
forest site.  More specifically, although the trees preserved at this 
site are almost certainly the most well preserved plant fossils in 
the world, nothing really turned up to represent the Animalia. I did find
a crawfish or similar critter burrow that will probably be the first
published evidence of the fauna of this site, but if you could see how 
these trees are preserved, you will understand how little this is going 
to impress anyone...
 
There will be a project web site up in a few weeks and then you can see 
them for yourself, but I doubt the pictures are going to do the place 
justice.  

 

-- 
__________________________
Josh Smith
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Earth and Environmental Science
471 Hayden Hall
240 South 33rd Street
Philadelphia, PA  19104-6316
(215) 898-5630 (Office)
(215) 898-0964 (FAX)
smithjb@sas.upenn.edu