Fossil and Recent Cheilostomata (Bryozoa) from the Ross Sea, Antarctica

Abstract

Summary Fifty-six species of cheilostome Bryozoa have been identified in samples from the McMurdo Sound area of the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Material collected alive from beneath the permanent ice sheet, at White Island and Cape Bird, is supplemented by fossil material collected from a coastal moraine deposit at Black Island. The moraine is thought to have formed through the ablation of grounded ice containing benthic deposits which have been subject to upward migration through the ice sheet, by a process of surface melting and basal ice accretion. The fossils are of presumed Quaternary age (3060 ± 70 years B.P.) and were in an excellent state of preservation.