- Some of the strangest undersea creatures known to man
could vanish if the Southern Ocean warms by a couple of degrees over the
next century, scientists said yesterday.
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- The seabeds surrounding Antarctica are home to thousands
of unusual species including giant sea spiders the size of dinner plates,
3ft long ribbon worms that secrete acid, and snails that drill through
clam shells.
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- The creatures have evolved to fill a gap left by predators
such as crabs, lobsters and fish that vanished when the Antarctic got colder
35 million years ago.
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- The plight of the Antarctic's strangest inhabitants is
being discussed this week at a conference called by the British Antarctic
Survey in London.
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- Dr Richard Aronson, of Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory,
Alabama, said the marine ecosystem offered a window into the past.
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- "It is very reminiscent of times gone by and the
sorts of communities you would see in the fossil record several hundred
million years ago. That's because the modern predators are missing,"
he said.
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- Fossil studies suggest that crabs and predatory fish
vanished around 35 million years ago after a period of global cooling,
he said.
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- "One of the most puzzling questions is why the crabs
were eliminated from the Antarctic when there are still crabs in the Arctic
where it is just as cold."
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- The absence of predators allowed smaller creatures to
move to the top of the food chain.
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- Sea stars ate sponges, while snails drilled through the
shells of clams, he said. Isopods - undersea forms of woodlice - were 100
times heavier than their European counterparts.
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- Climate models suggest that the southern seas could warm
by 2C to 3C in the next century. The bottom-dwelling creatures may be unable
to survive warmer oceans.
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- Although the interior of the Antarctic has been cooling
since the late 1970s, some coastal areas are getting warmer.
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- Temperatures of the Antarctic peninsula have risen by
2.5 degrees since the 1950s.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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