What Sort Of Plant And Animal Life Can Be Found In Antarctica?
Because of the long Antarctic night, the 800 varieties of plants—lichens, mosses, freshwater algae, bacteria, molds, yeasts and fungi living on the land area are dormant for long periods. But they become almost instantly photosynthetic during short summer bursts of only a few days, weeks or a month or two. On the other hand, though plant life is sparse, animals abound; but both the number and the size of the land species are few. Nearly all the animals are seen near the edge of the ice sheet or in the water, either living in the ocean or getting their sustenance from it. The animals relying on the land for food and shelter are some microscopic species along with tiny insects and spiders. The largest of these is a fly, a relative of the common housefly, about one tenth of an inch (c. 3 millimetres) long. Besides the non-flying penguins, there are the South Polar skua and the Antarctic petrel. In the Antarctic and in the sub-Antarctic island regions there are terns, albatrosses, cormoran
