2023-12-26 11:00:27
The Turquet octopus lives on the Antarctic side. And by analyzing the DNA of a few specimens from three different seas, researchers have just made a discovery that is as surprising as it is worrying.
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A big head. Eight sprawling arms. Three hearts, nine brains, but no skeleton. The octopus is an amazing animal. And one of them in particular, the Turquet octopus — or Pareledone turquetifor scientists — reveals to us today information that is, to say the least, worrying for our future.
When the ice melts, the octopuses come closer
Researchers from the James Cook University (Australia) present in the journal Science, the work they carried out on this octopus which lives in the Antarctic region. They analyzed DNA from Turquet’s octopuses found in the Weddell, Amundsen and RossRoss seas. These three seas are independent today, separated by ice. But their DNA shows that exchanges of genetic material might have taken place during the last interglacial period. And this is only possible if sea routes were then open.
So scientists conclude that the West Antarctic ice sheet probably collapsed around 120,000 years ago. However, at that time, the temperatures that reigned on our Planet were somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5°C above those we know as pre-industrial temperatures. In other words, the Earth’s climate was similar to what we experience today.
Antarctic collapse and sea level rise
So Antarctica may be closer to a tipping point and further collapse than researchers previously thought. With the disastrous consequence, a rise in sea level of between 3.5 and 5 meters! And although uncertainties remain — whether the past collapse of the ice sheet was solely due to rising temperatures or whether sea levels then rose slowly or in more rapid jumps — scientists do not do not hesitate to compare their discovery with “a new card stacked on an already unstable castle”.
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