I.D. Antarctica

I.D. Antarctica

A mystery series featuring some of the amazing marine organisms that live in Antarctica

Join Andrew Corso, a PhD candidate at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science as he ventures to the waters off the coast of the Western Antarctic Peninsula.  On his research cruises, he ran across a number of “mystery” creatures in the ocean and air.  Can you help him identify these facinating Antarctic creatures?

During the winter of 2000 and again in 2023, this adventure unfolded in real-time via weekly blog posts.  In April 2020, Andrew facilitated a similar virtual program in conjunction with NJ 4-H from Home.

Now, we’ve compiled these resources here to help students and families explore life in the Southern Ocean, with Andrew as your guide.  You can follow along using by using the table below. Each challenge provides a link to Andrew’s original blog post, the identification key and an explanation of the answer by Andrew.

Especially for K12 Teachers: We’ve created this slide deck, with abbreviated content, to share with your students.  It will allow them to step through each week’s challenges without skipping ahead to the answers.  All of the answers are linked in this separate slide.  You may also want to use this brief Antarctica Worksheet to get oriented.

I.D. Antarctica 2020

Challenge	Resources
	#1 Start with Andrew’s first mystery challenge… Mystery Creature Challenge #1 – Seabirds Week 1 Mystery Creature and Identification Key Did you get it right?  Check your answer here.
	#2 Ready for more? Try Andrew’s second challenge… Mystery Creature Challenge #2 – Zooplankton Week 2 Mystery Creature and Identification Key Did you get it right?  Check your answer here.
	#3 Now you’ve got the hang of it! Mystery Creature Challenge #3 – Fish Week 3 Mystery Creature and Identification Key Did you get it right?  Check your answer here. Want to know more about this mystery creature? Watch Andrew explain his research on Antarctic fishes in this 45-minute video recording Explore more about these unusual Antarctic fishes with this Polar Data Story
	#4 Keep testing your skills!  Identify a pair of Mystery Creatures in this next challenge. Mystery Creature Challenge #4 – Zooplankton Predator-Prey Week 4 Mystery Creatures and Identification Key – Download this week’s identification key to identify both of the mystery zooplankton shown in this picture Did you get it right?  Check your answer here. Want to know more about these mystery creatures? Watch Andrew talk about the role of these zooplankton in the marine food web, and find out more about the Long Term Ecological research (LTER) at Palmer Station in this 37-minute video recording
	#5 Bonus round! Mystery Creature Challenge #5 – Penguins Week 5 Mystery Creature and Identification Key Did you get it right?  Check your answer here. Want to know more about penguins on the Western Antarctic Peninsula? Watch Andrew talk about the penguin populations and life at Palmer Station in this 40-minute video recording Explore more penguin data: What can penguins teach us about the ocean? – Project SWARM

I.D. Antarctica 2023

Challenge	Resources
	#1 Heading to Antarctica Can you identify 2 mystery seabirds and a mystery zooplankton we saw along the way? 2023 Mystery Creature Challenge #1 – Seabirds Did you get it right? Check out the Answer for Challenge #1
	#2 Sampling at Palmer Station 2023 Mystery Creature Challenge #2 – Larval Fish Did you get it right?  We’ll post the answers soon!

About our scientist:

Andrew Corso, a PhD candidate at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, will be leading I.D. Antarctica. While he is primarily researching the impacts of climate change on Antarctic fishes, he has the opportunity to work with scientists studying a variety of Antarctic organisms, ranging from bacteria to whales. Andrew’s greatest passion is photography and his specialized equipment will help illustrate the otherworldly animals of the Southern Ocean.