Recent geomorphic and thermochronologic studies in the Byrd drainage system present a paradoxical suite of data that are difficult to interpret under the current paradigm that the Transantarctic Mountains are an Eocene rift flank uplift. Specifically, recent studies indicate 1) the Byrd outlet originated prior to development of the TAM (Huerta & Reusch, 2005; Huerta, 2006; in revision), 2) the Byrd drainage system once flowed from West Antarctica to East Antarctica (Huerta & Reusch, 2005; Huerta, 2006), and 3) rapid crustal cooling at ~120 Ma in the Byrd glacier region, (Huerta & Winberry, submitted). These data, however, are readily understood in the context of recent geodynamic studies that indicate that the West Antarctic region would have been a high-elevation plateau prior to the onset of extension at ~105 Ma, and that the Transantarctic Mountains may be the abandoned margin of the collapsed plateau (Huerta and Harry, 2007; Bialas, in press).