There are not many bugs in Antarctica—only three species of midges, which are basically flightless flies—but millions of years ago, the continent was much warmer and more humid. During those years, after the supercontinent Gondwana broke up into the landmasses we have today, there were beetles crawling around on the most southernly continent.

Ball's Antarctic Tundra Beetle, as it has been named, lived some 14 to 20 million years ago, and researchers from North Dakota State University and the Smithsonian Institution recently found two fossils of the extinct beetle's forewings on Beardmore Glacier near the Transantarctic Mountains. These fossils represent a previously unknown species, and they are the first ground beetles ever discovered in Antarctica.

"Insects are least well-represented in Antarctica than anywhere else on Earth. The living fauna consists of three species of flightless chironomid midges," reads a research paper on the discovery published in the open-access journal ZooKeys. "The fossil record for insects in Antarctica is equally poor."

These beetles, which are likely related to an ancient beetle species that lived on Gondwana, help to fill in the geologic record and teach us how Antarctica transformed into the frozen tundra we have today. When Ball's Antarctic Tundra Beetle roamed the continent, there must have been flora growing on sand and gravel banks to provide a food source, such as buttercup, moss mats, southern beech, and cushion plants. The beetles, which may or may not have been able to fly, must have lived in these areas near meltwater and sparse vegetation. Finding and dating the beetle fossils tells us that Antarctica remained a relatively mild place for millions of years after it separated from the supercontinent Gondwana.

It makes you wonder, what else lived on Antarctica before it transformed into a frozen wasteland?

Source: ZooKeys via Gizmodo

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