Vanishing Ice Shelf Reveals Exotic Animals

Spindly orange sea stars, fan-finned ice fish and herds of roving sea cucumbers are among the exotic creatures spied off the Antarctic coast in an area formerly covered by ice, scientists reported on Sunday. This is the first time explorers have been able to catalogue wildlife where two mammoth ice shelves used to extend for 10 000 square kilometres over the Weddell Sea. At least 5 000 years old, the ice shelves collapsed in two stages over the last dozen years. One crumbled 12 years ago and the other followed in 2002...