First frogs discovered in Antarctica The discovery of the earliest known modern amphibians provides evidence of a warm and temperate climate in the Antarctic Peninsula before its separation from the southern supercontinent, Gondwana Antarctic Peninsula ANTARCTICA 200km 125 miles 8km 5 miles GONDWANA (Around 180 million years ago, not to scale) South America Africa India Antartica Aus. Seymour Island: 40m-year-old fossil fragments of skull and hip bone – belonging to family of helmeted frogs (Calyptocephalellidae) – discovered 1 mm Hip fragment Skull fragment Discovery contradicts previous evidence suggesting ice sheets formed across Antarctic Peninsula before break-up of Gondwana into continents of present-day southern hemisphere Outline of continents during Eocene (56-33.9 million years ago) ANTARCTICA SOUTH AMERICA NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA Reconstruction of Eocene pond in Antarctic Peninsula. Climate may have been comparable to humid and temperate forests of South America, where all five living species of helmeted frog are exclusively found Artwork by Pollyanna von Knorring, Swedish Museum of Natural History. Photo credits: Simon Pierre Barrette and José Grau de Puerto Montt at Wikimedia, Mats Wedin, Swedish Museum of Natural History Sources: Nature © GRAPHIC NEWS