Whittle Rowan J, Quaglio Fernanda, Griffiths Huw J, Linse Katrin, Crame J Alistair
British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK,
Naturwissenschaften. 2014 Jan;101(1):47-59. doi: 10.1007/s00114-013-1128-0. Epub 2013 Dec 24.
The fossil community from the Early Miocene Cape Melville Formation (King George Island, Antarctica) does not show the archaic retrograde nature of modern Antarctic marine communities, despite evidence, such as the presence of dropstones, diamictites and striated rocks, that it was deposited in a glacial environment. Unlike modern Antarctic settings, and the upper units of the Eocene La Meseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica, which are 10 million years older, the Cape Melville Formation community is not dominated by sessile suspension feeding ophiuroids, crinoids or brachiopods. Instead, it is dominated by infaunal bivalves, with a significant component of decapods, similar to present day South American settings. It is possible that the archaic retrograde structure of the modern community did not fully evolve until relatively recently, maybe due to factors such as further cooling and isolation of the continent leading to glaciations, which resulted in a loss of shallow shelf habitats.
早中新世梅尔维尔角组（南极乔治王岛）的化石群落并未呈现出现代南极海洋群落古老的逆行特征，尽管有证据表明（如落石、杂砾岩和条痕岩的存在）该群落是在冰川环境中沉积的。与现代南极环境以及南极洲西摩岛上比其早1000万年的始新世拉梅塞塔组上部单元不同，梅尔维尔角组群落并非以固着悬浮摄食的蛇尾类、海百合类或腕足动物为主。相反，它以底内双壳类为主，十足类占相当比例，类似于现今南美洲的环境。现代群落古老的逆行结构可能直到最近才完全演化形成，或许是由于诸如大陆进一步冷却和隔离导致冰川作用等因素，进而造成浅海陆架栖息地丧失。
