I’ve read in the paper that dino bones have been found in Antarctica. Let’s assume this is true for the sake of argument (can anyone verify this?): Was Antarctica closer to the Equator, making it warmer, or was the planet’s average temperature higher? A related question: how long ago was Pangaea? Thanks
Was Antarctica closer to the Equator, making it warmer, or was the planet’s average temperature higher? A related question: how long ago was Pangaea? Thanks]]]]]]]]]]]]
Why ask if you
know of Pangaea?
Pangaea, if it existed at all, occurred only briefly about 225M years ago. The first dinosaurs appeared about 227M years ago, and the last died off about 70M years ago. So while there were dinosaurs on Pangaea, there wasn’t the vast assortment of massive monsters that we are familiar with.
Antarctica started breaking off from the continent of Gondwanaland about 200M years ago. For a good display of this process, see this site. As you can see, the north coast of Antarctica 200M years ago was at about the same latitude as present-day Buenos Aires. Much more temparate than its current location.
Brian
As my 5 year old would say, “Of course they’ve found dinosaurs in Antarctica !” Check out the book “Newest and Coolest Dinosaurs” by Phillip J. Currie & Colleayn O. Mastin. (This is a kid’s book, but is fun to read anyway.) Here they show “Cryolophosaurus”, a medium-size predator first described in 1994. These fossils were found about 200 miles from the South Pole. I wouldn’t be surprised if others had before or since been discovered.