Mummified seal ages

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 19

Mummified seal ages

Determining the absolute age of mummified seals found in the dry valleys of Antarctica’s southern Victoria Land is a problem yet to be completely solved. On the basis of all data available from repeated field observations between 1965 and 1970 an American scientist believes that the slight desiccated seals have been dead only a few years, and that the mummified remains that still have intact or nearly intact pelts are no more than 20 to 30 years old and that none of the skeletal remains are more than 200 to 30C years old. Writing in “The Antarctic Journal of the United States’ Mr W. Dort, of the geology department of the University of Kansas, says that radiocarbon analysis of specimens obtained from mummifiec seals in the area had yieldec ages ranging from 615 t< 4600 years.

; “Antarctic sea water has i I significantly lower carbon-14 i ■ activity than that accepted as i 1 the world standard. There- i -.fore, radiocarbon dating of marine organisms yields i apparent ages that are older 1 than true ages, but by an > unknown and possibly vari- - able amount, says Mr Dort. t Because of this, he adds, i several radiocarbon ages 1 determined for the mummified s seal could not be accepted / as correct. i Mr Dort mentioned a seal t found on the ice of Lake Bons ney in November, 1966, J believed to have died the preceding week or two yet the c { apparent radiocarbon age ” was determined to have been y-615 years plus or minus 100 y years. Another seal, freshly killed s at McMurdo Station, had an d apparent age of 1300 years, d Mr Dort says the presence o of numerous seal bodies well preserved by desiccation or

mummification by the cold, dry environment was one of the more puzzling of the many interesting features of the dry valleys of southern - Victoria land. The unusual remains were first discovered when land • exploration of the region began with Captain R. F. . Scott’s first Antarctic expedi- ■ tion of 1901-1904. Since 1957 I a minimum of 210 bodies have I been observed. While most bodies were I found on or near valley floors ■ a few succeeded in climbing . steep slopes or even isolated • peaks before dying at leva- ! tions ranging up to 3800 ft ! above sea level. ’ The occurrence of seal > bodies in this area is not duplicated anywhere else in 1 Antarctica, says Mr Dort. 1 The photograph shows a mummified seal in the 5 Taylor Valley area of 1 Antarctica, 38 miles from r McMurdo Sound.