Polish paleontological research in Antarctica

Poland has a long tradition of Earth science research in the Antarctic. For more than 100 years, Polish scientists have been participating in geological studies of this remote and inaccessible region of the world, making significant contributions to this field of science.

Among the participants of the Belgian expedition of A. de Gerlache de Gomera to West Antarctica on the ship Belgica (1897-1899) were two Poles: Henryk Arctowski and Antoni Boleslaw Dobrowolski. During this expedition they conducted geological, glaciological, meteorological and oceanological research. They also collected rich collections of rocks. Both later played a significant role in the development of Polish polar research.

Paradise Harbour (photo A. Gaździcki)

A group of Polish scientists participating in the 19th SAE (photo H. Szaniawski)

During the Antarctic summer of 1973-74, a group of Polish biologists participated in the 19th Soviet Antarctic Expedition (SAE), among them paleontologist Hubert Shaniawski, who conducted research in the area of Molodiozhnaya Station (Enderby Land, East Antarctica) and in the Prince Charles Mountains. Two years later, paleobiologist Jerzy Dzik took part in the first marine scientific expedition to Antarctica (1975-76).

The establishment in February 1977 of the year-round Polish Antarctic Station of the Polish Academy of Sciences named after Henryk Arctowski in Admiralty Bay on King George Island (King George) created very good conditions for research. During the subsequent Polish Antarctic Expeditions of the Polish Academy of Sciences organized by the Institute of Ecology of the Polish Academy of Sciences to the Arctowski Station in 1977-1988, field groups of Earth sciences performed research in paleobiology, stratigraphy and sedimentology.

Polish Antarctic Station named after Henryk Arctowski (photo A. Gaździcki)

King penguins (Aptenodytes patagonica), South Georgia (photo A. Gaździcki)

Geologists and paleontologists from the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences participated in this research: Janusz Błaszyk, Andrzej Gaździcki, Hubert Szaniawski, Adam Urbanek and Ryszard Wrona. In addition, Andrzej Gaździcki conducted research work in the Antarctic Peninsula region (Hope Bay and Seymour and Cockburn islands) during five summer seasons in 1987-97. Field research was also conducted in South Georgia and the Falkland Islands.

Expeditions in the James Ross Basin area (which includes the Seymour and Cockburn islands) were conducted jointly with scientists from the Argentine Antarctic Institute and the universities of Buenos Aires and La Plata, based on Argentine logistical resources.

Argentine-Polish group's field camp on Seymour Island (photo A. Gaździcki)

Cape Roberts Project drilling platform (CRP-3 well) Ross Sea (photo W. Majewski)

Wojciech Majewski took part in the international Cape Roberts Project, conducted in 1997-1999 in the Ross Sea (McMurdo, East Antarctica). Drilling performed as part of this program provided new data on climate change and shed new light on the Tertiary Antarctic ecosystem.

Rich and diverse collections of fossils including fossil floras, microfossils (borers, bivalves), invertebrate faunas (corals, bryozoans, snails, brachiopods, polychaetes, clams, crabs, sea urchins) and vertebrate faunas (fish, penguins and cetaceans) collected during Polish and Argentine-Polish Antarctic expeditions are studied by Polish and foreign paleontologists. Most of the collection is being developed at the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

Shellfish with Turritella sp. snails. Eocene,Seymour Island (photo G. Dziewińska)

Starfish Buterminaster elegans. Eocene, Seymour Island (photo G. Dziewińska)

The subject of this study is a comprehensive analysis of fossil assemblages from the Cenozoic formations of King George (King George), Seymour and Cockburn Islands in West Antarctica, their paleobiology and tafonomy and also their significance for age correlation, climate change and paleobiogeographic reconstructions. At the same time, the eratics of Cambrian limestones found in Tertiary sea-ice sediments on King George Island contain the oldest skeletal fossils, which have provided new information about the early stages of the evolution of the biosphere.

The result of Polish paleontologists' studies in Antarctica to date is already more than 100 articles and paleontological dissertations published in peer-reviewed national and international publications.

Andrzej Gaździcki