Collaborative Research: Permian and Triassic Icehouse to Greenhouse Paleoenvironments and Paleobotany in the Shackleton Glacier area, Antarctica

The research focus of the University of Kansas (KU) part of this collaborative proposal was to collect fossil plants and fossil wood from Permian and Triassic rocks of the Shackleton Glacier (SHK) area of Antarctica. The collections were made within their stratigraphic and sedimentologic context (in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee), in order to reconstruct the extent of the Gondwana glaciation, the invasion and subsequent flourishing of life following glacial retreat, and the eventual recovery of plant life after the Late Permian biotic events. Two seasons of field work in the SHK area were completed during the 2015-2017 and 2017-2018 austral field seasons.