>By sheer coincidence, I saw your question just before leaving for a
>presentation at my local dive club meeting by a scientist who dives in
>Antarctica.
>
>He showed images of scallops (and sea urchins and starfish and forams).
>
>He said that it was previously believed that the sea level was far higher in
>the recent past because scallops were found on the sides of mountains
>nearby. However, scientists have since figured out that scallops locked in
>patches of bottom ice (formed by contact with the colder substrate) can
>float to the top where they are blown by surface winds to higher elevations.

Those shells are actually Holocene, so they've been dead quite a
while... Apparently they do NOT rise from the bottom by ablation of
ice, but I don't know the actual transport mechanism.

The locality is the Ice Pinnacles, near Mt Discovery, near McMurdo
(spelling!) Island.

I know someone who collected from that ice, and he gave me his sample
to sort... and to keep representative specimens of. It's a rich
fauna, with lots of micros but also larger forms such as giant
Philobrya, Limatula, Adamussium colbecki, naticids and a couple of
Trophon spp. And amazing glass sponges!
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin, New Zealand
64 (3) 473-8863
<[log in to unmask]>
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh & VW/Toyota van nut
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I want your sinistral gastropods!
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Opinions in this e-mail are my own, not those of my institution
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Q: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
A: Why is top posting frowned upon?