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Antarctica is one of the most physically and chemically extreme terrestrial environments to be inhabited by lifeforms. [1] The largest plants are mosses, and the largest animals that do not leave the continent are a few species of insects. Microbiome on the High Antarctic Plateau
The frozen continent of Antarctica was the last continent humanity set foot on. The first documented landings made below the Antarctic Circle took place in 1820, when Admiral Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and the crew of the Vostok and Mirny, as part of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, made land at Peter I Island and Alexander Island.
Nothofagus fusca, New Zealand. Antarctic flora are a distinct community of vascular plants which evolved millions of years ago on the supercontinent of Gondwana.Presently, species of Antarctica flora reside on several now separated areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including southern South America, southernmost Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and New Caledonia.
Abiotic components include physical conditions and non-living resources that affect living organisms in terms of growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Resources are distinguished as substances or objects in the environment required by one organism and consumed or otherwise made unavailable for use by other organisms.
Antarctica's two flowering plant species, the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis), are found on the northern and western parts of the Antarctic Peninsula. Antarctica is also home to a diversity of animal life, including penguins, seals, and whales.
Development of the Bransfield Rift, depicting trench rollback and upwelling of displaced mantle material. [2] The last and most recent stage in the evolution of the Antarctic Peninsula subduction zone is the opening of the Bransfield Rift, [2] [5] creating the Bransfield back-arc basin from the Oligocene to the present day. [2]
David Senchina notes that Hooker was the first botanist to set foot on Antarctica, in 1840; the first sighting of a plant on the continent was only a few years earlier, namely A. Young's observation of Deschampsia antarctica (Antarctic hair grass) in 1819, from HMS Andromache, and the first plant specimen from an Antarctic island had been ...
A speculative representation of Antarctica labelled as ' Terra Australis Incognita ' on Jan Janssonius's Zeekaart van het Zuidpoolgebied (1657), Het Scheepvaartmuseum The name given to the continent originates from the word antarctic, which comes from Middle French antartique or antarctique (' opposite to the Arctic ') and, in turn, the Latin antarcticus (' opposite to the north ').