Peter Convey1, John A.E. Gibson2, Dominic A. Hodgson1, Philip J.A. Pugh3, and Mark I. Stevens4. (1) Biological Sciences, British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, United Kingdom, (2) School of Zoology, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 5, Hobart, 7001, Australia, (3) Department of Life Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, East Road, Cambridge, CB1 1PT, United Kingdom, (4) Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Ice sheet modelling of Antarctica supports a generally accepted view that most, if not all, currently ice free ground would have been obliterated at the LGM or previous maxima. However, several recently emerged and complementary strands of biological research cannot be reconciled with this reconstruction of Antarctic glacial history, and therefore challenge the existing paradigm. In this review, we summarise and synthesise evidence across these lines of research. This evidence points to large elements of the contemporary Antarctic terrestrial biota having a long continuous, but isolated, history within the region. These examples relate to all timescales relevant to Antarctic continental evolution (Gondwana breakup to Holocene), and are spatially distributed across much of the continent.
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