The melted ice reveals a mass grave and a mummy penguin

In 2016, Steven Emsley, an ornithologist studying a bird colony on the shores of the Ross Sea in Antarctica, heard about pebble ounds bi, a rocky outcrop surrounded by water and ice, in the Cape Iris.

The Guano generation reacts with rocks and soil as a breeding ground for nesting birds. However, no active colony has been recorded on the site since researchers discovered and named the cape in early 1901 in the Antarctic.

After inspecting the site, Emsley found a fresh penguin carcass, old and finally resting, with bones, feathers and egg shells. Was previously found on the site. Pebbles were home, suggesting that the site was a former penguin colony.

According to a research paper published in the journal, the changed ages are at least three time-centric and indicate abandonment of the site. Geology.

The southern ocean around Antarctica supports about ten million breeding pairs of Adele penguins (Pygocellis Adelia) Annual. There is a preserved record of abandoned penguin colonies on this continent since the last glacial maximum about 45,000 years ago.

Due to the planting of pebbles for penguins ’homes, they will see snow-free spots during the breeding season. Emsley speculates that the penguins left the newly discovered colony in the early part of the Little Ice Age, during the cooling period between 1300 and 1850, covering the ice and ice-free zone east of it. Since the 1960s, the average annual temperature in this part of the continent has risen between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius, resulting in the melting of snow and the beginning of decomposition.

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