Climate change has revealed an ancient graveyard of mummified penguins that have been hidden under thick Antartica ice for more than 5,000 years. Unwitting scientists stumbled upon hundreds of penguin carcasses that had been frozen in time and preserved with feathers, bones and bodies. Steven Emslie, a professor at the University of North Carolina, was among the team studying Cape Irizar on the south coast of Antartica. His team encountered the puzzling ancient burial ground believing they were actually fresh remains, mostly of penguin chicks. But as there was no record of a colony at the site, an investigation was launched that has since revealed that the bodies date back 5,000 years. Emslie found abundant penguin chick bones scattered on the surface, along with guano stains, implying recent use of the site . But that wasn't possible, the professor said. "We excavated into three of these mounds, using methods similar to archaeologists, to recover preserved tissues of penguin bone, feather, and eggshell, as well as hard parts of prey from the guano (fish bones, otoliths). "The soil was very dry and dusty, just as I've found at other very old sites I've worked on in the Ross Sea, and also… Read full this story
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