Their fossils still lie under miles of thick ice

Dec 22, 2011 16:02 GMT  ·  By
Ancient dinosaurs roamed Antarctica when the continent was covered in forests
   Ancient dinosaurs roamed Antarctica when the continent was covered in forests

The Southern Continent is currently the domain of penguins and never ending ice fields, but things were not always like that. In the distant past, researchers uncovered, the forests of Antarctica were roamed by a multitude of dinosaur species.

At the time, the continent beneath the South Pole was connected to Australia, and the giant lizards made their way through there. In fact, scientists believed that Antarctica was an oasis of sorts, a refuge that species profited from until ices covered it up, about 35 million years ago.

Just recently, archaeologists uncovered a portion of a bone that they believe belonged to a sauropod, one of those massive herbivore dinosaurs, with prolonged necks and Tails, which used to bend their necks to reach the top of trees.

There is currently no way of knowing to which of the 150 sauropod species this particular bones belong, but scientists are convinced that additional digs will reveal this mystery, ScienceNow reports.