Wednesday, March 25, 2009

More COOL FACTS!

I'm putting up a few more cool facts today as I continue work on the educational packet.  Hopefully, I'll be able to post the who thing on here once it's completed.  It may take a while, though - I really want it to look professional and I've been taking my time structuring it in MS Word.  I found out I could do some pretty cool things...

Anyway, here are the cool facts I wanted to share:

Many people assume that Antarctica's largest land animal is the penguin or seal. However, the continent largest land animal is the wingless midge, a type of fly that is no more than ½ an inch long. Penguins and seals are aquatic animals - they spend most of their time in the water.

One of the six species of seals in Antarctica, Weddell seals, can hold their breath 30 times longer than humans. This allows them to dive to depths of almost 2000 feet and to spend more than an hour under the thick ice.  

There are two flowering plants found on the Antarctic Peninsula: Deschampsia antarctica (Antarctic hair grass) and Colobanthus quitensis (Antarctic pearlwort). Most other plant life is composed of lichens and mosses.

Scientists have discovered fossils of plants and animals revealing that millions of years ago, Antarctica was much warmer with temperate forests (SHOCKING, right?).

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