The question as to what killed the dinosaurs is still a hot topic for debate. What if there was a build up of events in ordinary evolutionary cycle, where it paid to be resistant to extreme cold.

John Storm, the rugged ocean adventurer is also an amateur Paleo Anthropologist, near obsessed with his DNA collection called 'The Ark,' that is safely embedded in his trusty ship, the Elizabeth Swann, protected by the ever watchful Hal.

Having been injected with a super CRISPR virus, John became DNA enhanced like the Panamanian Running Man. Allied to his new strength, the CyberCore Genetica™, and a brain implant named BioCore™, the combination turns him into the most digitally connected person in history. A walking library of information, with AI processing capability.

Despite all good intentions during UN conferences and the like, global world leaders had failed to address climate change in sufficient time to prevent the oceans from boiling. As a result, the ice caps at the North and South Poles melt, revealing Antarctica as never seen by man, in a semi-prehistoric state.

A startling discovery in the ice, sharp jaws protruding from a block of solid ice.

SECTASAUR™ PLOT SUMMARY

At a time in the not too distant future, the ice melts at both poles revealing features on the land not seen for thousands of years. A converted Frigate, the US Arktos is discovered at the South Pole locked into melting ice, then freed. She has been missing since an expedition in 1838. A famous ship at the time, formerly the USS Essex, she had been bought at auction in 1837 and hastily refitted by a group of explorers who had come by a fossilized artifact thought to be of considerable archaeological importance. The fossilized jaw was said to have originated in Antarctica brought back as a souvenir by the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen during his fabled 1820 expedition.

Another fantastic discovery is a labyrinth of tunnels beneath the ice, dated by scientists to be millions of years old. Mysteriously, the scientist who discovered and dated the tunnel complex disappears, but not before his find is leaked to a Sky news researcher on the Discovery channel. Alerting Charley Temple to the unfolding story. And yes, she rises to the occasion, sending alerts to her fellow adventurer, John Strom.

The Antarctic is inhabited by survey expeditions from up to six counties at any one time. Though the country is not the sovereign territory of any one nation. But, by agreeing a series of treaties, an understanding is in place and this wilderness is amply protected as a result.

Three new expeditions are launched by competing concerns, the first a Swedish venture lead by a headstrong Bjorn Atlas and his navigator Sven Johansson. The second expedition is a multinational effort lead by Cathy Carter with 3 veteran arctic explorers. The third expedition is a private enterprise secretly funded by Chinese Triads, under the leadership of Lin Po Chang, a child genius and infamous martial arts champion and his two dedicated henchmen.

Taken by surprise, and a knee jerk reaction, John goes to attack the Sectasaur, before realising they have a rapport. 

A race ensues where the teams vie with each other, to secure the archaeological prize that is there for the taking. Lin Po Chang, is not only a master of the martial arts (Taekwondo & Karate) but also a keen paleontologist, who predicted the existence of variant life-forms on this continent and has more than a hunch as to the inhabitants of this tunnel complex.

Several fatal accidents occur in quick succession, then an egg clutch is discovered in a section of a tunnel. For a moment all rivalry is dispatched as the parties marvel at the find. They assume the eggs are prehistoric and dinosaur remains, though the eggs have a tough leathery exterior (Alien - Ridley Scott), rather than a hard shell.

Systematically, Chang eliminates the remaining opposition, pitting the Swedes against Carters crew (Ice Station Zebra - Alistair Mclean), until only one man and one woman remain alive to challenge Chang: Sven Johansen and Cathy Carter. In a desperate act of self sacrifice, Johansen tackles Chang while Carter escapes, seriously wounded to reveal the tragic turn of events to her Sky colleague, the self same Discovery channel researcher - she dies shortly after.

Meantime, Chang deploys his talent to nurture one egg through a simulated incubation when a creature not seen on Earth during Man's evolution is brought back into an unsuspecting world.

The creature is smuggled aboard an ageing Ice Patrol survey vessel called the 'KoolArctic' bound for England, in a crate marked rock samples (Relic & Arachnophobia), whereupon it burrows out and grows rapidly, eating two crew members of the survey vessel who discovered, then tried to kill it. Chang had already relocated the remaining eggs, before setting out to rendezvous with his precious cargo in Portsmouth, unaware of the developments onboard KoolArctic.

The second mate on the KoolArctic reports the chaos aboard their vessel to the British Admiralty, shortly after being forced to abandon ship with the remainder of the crew, on the advice of his superiors to scupper the ship. The ship sinks but the resourceful creature manages to cling to flotsam then hitch a ride on a container ship the 'Atlantic Express' under the cover of darkness.

The artwork is also suitable for use in "Jimmy Watson's Magic Dinobot." A proposed network TV serialization, about boy who saves his paper round money to buy himself a robot for Christmas. Then, when assembled, it come to life, to become his friend.

MI6 and the CIA decide to send in John Storm, an expert diver, archaeologist and enthusiastic adventurer to report on the goings on, in return for a generous contribution to his causes. Storm is happy to oblige if it means adding to his DNA collection for his usual fee - a hefty donation to his favourite charities. Having equipped his solar and hydrogen powered ship, the Elizabeth Swan, with arctic clothing and supplies, he, Dan Hawk and Charley Temple sped from the Southern Ocean to the Weddell Sea and there to Deception Island, an extinct volcano.

The team set up camp onshore and soon the trio locate the excavation site, then using the 'Ark' (a DNA database) Storm uncovers disturbing new evidence to support a theory that dinosaurs were not wiped out by a meteor striking the earth (creating an artificial ice age), but by very efficient hunting animals related to the Vespoidea or Myrmecia Giganticus taxonomic group, part of a long extinct branch of the family Formicidae of the order Hymenoptera - insects in plain speak. This strain appears to have evolved rapidly by adaptive radiation. From the evidence on site it seems that these deadly animals hunted in packs in significant numbers to overwhelm much larger animals (an example of which may be seen in 6mm army ants overcoming a 40mm bull ant and just about any animal in the jungle that gets in their way).

They lived at a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Maybe, partly explaining the demise of the smaller prehistoric creatures, such as Velociraptor. Where Tyrannosaurus Rex would have starved in a volcanic winter, smaller animals might have fared better. Except against creatures with a higher tolerance to freezing conditions, and even faster reaction times.

From DNA analysis aboard an energy depleted Elizabeth Swan, Storm estimates that this species grew to between 3-5 metres and that they were warm blooded with a high tolerance to low temperatures, with a kind of lung to supply vast amounts of oxygen to their spiracles via an organ pumped dorsal aorta to the other organs in an otherwise classic exoskeleton arrangement. Storm and Hawk realize the danger if such a creature were ever to be introduced on the mainland and with evidence that eggs have been removed from the site, alert MI6 and the CIA to the danger.

A giant (extinct) grasshopper - Mueritzeum Museum, Warren, Germany

Storm and crew head to England at high speed. Meanwhile Chang has landed in Portsmouth, to await the remaining eggs unaware that the koolArctic is at the bottom of the ocean and the Atlantic Express then docks in Southampton to unload her containers.

The giant prehistoric animal jumps ship at night crossing the River Test heading west, finding comfort in the outskirts of the New Forest where it feeds on ponies that are in plentiful supply. Eventually, losses of these equines come to the attention of a nature group and that is passed on to Hampshire police, relayed to MI6 and thence to John Storm.

Storm and crew came into the Solent proceeding up the Beaulieu River to Bucklers Hard. An expedition into the bracken led Storm some miles from one of the pony corpses toward a wooden area near Worts Gutter (Furzey Lane). Storm called MI6 for backup. MI6 rushed to surround the area with heavily armed troops to protect civilians.

John Storm and Charley Temple went in hoping to somehow capture the animal without harming it. They stalked the animal for a time, but the creature had located and been stalking them, following their scent trail - when the giant insect came up from behind over the brow of a ravine and knocked Charley nearly unconscious as she reacted in fright. Storm managed to strike the creature with an axe he had picked up along the way. It fell down lying still in partial shock. 

Charley and John marvel at the anatomy of this ancient breed. Ignoring the dangers, they both set about patching the creature's wound with antiseptic and bandages that Charley had brought along in case they got into trouble. The dino ant allowed them to patch her up, ignoring the pain, it lay immobile listening to the couple talking, pretending to be incapacitated. The creature understood that the dialogue between John and Charley is not aggressive or threatening, but rather caring - and marks these two humans down as allies.

The insectoid feigned recovery, when John panicked and again went for the axe. Also as a reflex action the dino ant lashed out at John, throwing him backwards over a ledge, and Charley sprawling through some undergrowth. He managed to grab hold of a few roots - he was now at the mercy of the creature.

The huge insect rushed in for what John thinks is the kill, but instead puts itself at risk on the ledge to pull John up to safety. Meanwhile government troops are closing in and have seen what looks to them like a struggle, so increase their pace determined to kill the creature.

John dusted himself off while the magnificent insect squatted adjacent, also cleaning itself. Puzzled at the turn of events, he spoke to the animal - and the creature responded, turning its head to look at John - as if trying to understand. The giant insect regarded John's voice as a friendly sign and had logged his and Charley's scent as such.

The clever creature jumped ship, to end up in the United Kingdom, as the first port of call

As a scientist John could not help himself, but to offer his hand palm up to the creature. The animal moved to the hand and studied it with both of its feelers, tickling him. John's heart was pounding, the insect could easily amputate his hand with its razor sharp jaws.

Charley Temple struggled back through the bracken and saw the interaction between John and the insect. She immediately realized that for some reason the creature had accepted them as not being a threat. It had knocked her down as a reflex action. She moved in closer also proffering her hand, and again the prehistoric insect smelled her all over with its antennae. Charley giggled at the touch. Insects smell, taste and feel with their antennae and some feelers have the magnetic mineral, iron oxide, or magnetite in them, making their antennae into a biological compass, rather like homing pigeons.

John and Charley exchanged huge grins at the discovery. This animal was not a threat, but more of a find for mankind. Just then the government troops opened fire wounding the animal. John and Charley both leapt in front of the insect yelling at the soldiers to stop firing, but Charley caught a bullet in the arm and screamed in pain. At this the giant insect pushed them to one side and moved forward to protect them both from the gunfire. In the process, it took several more bullets and finally one to the head. It collapsed.

John and Charley got up shouting as loud as they could to hold fire. Charley was in some pain. The firing stopped, enabling them to get to the insect. It looked at them and raised its feelers, Charley took one in her good hand and John the other and the trio embraced for a minute, then the creature subsided and its antenna went limp - it was dead ......... Gone.

John shuddered with remorse, anger welling up inside of him. Charley cried openly, tears trickling down her cheeks. A well-built soldier ran to the scene whelping with delight at the kill. "Yes," cried the soldier, making macho muscle signs with his arm. "Yes," said John, and gave him a powerful punch to the jaw, and the soldier went down. 

"Chew on that."

Charley went to hit him despite her sore arm, but a few more men came in brandishing guns. She shouted and glared at them adopting a threatening posture. 

"Do you know what you have done. You trigger happy idiots." 

The soldiers had no reply, and they went away rather sheepishly; feeling more than a little foolish. Up to that point they thought they had saved her life.

John filed a report with MI6, advising of a great loss to science. He suggested that the South Pole should be examined further for clues as to how and when these animals evolved, lived, and survived in the ice. Cautioning that only fully vetted archaeologists should complete such a study, not the military. These scientists would need to be briefed by him and sworn to secrecy. He did not include in his report the few touching moments that he and Charley had experienced with the Sectasaur. He (they) doubted anyone would believe them.

1954 SCI-FI CLASSIC MOVIE - 'THEM'

Them! is a 1954 American black-and-white science fiction film from Warner Bros. Pictures produced by David Weisbart, directed by Gordon Douglas, and starring James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, and James Arness. The film is based on an original story treatment by George Worthing Yates, which was then developed into a screenplay by Ted Sherdeman and Russell Hughes.

Them! is one of the first of the 1950s "nuclear monster" movies, and the first "big bug" feature. A nest of gigantic irradiated ants is discovered in the New Mexico desert; they quickly become a national threat when it is discovered a young queen ant and her consorts have escaped to establish a new nest. The national search that follows finally culminates in a battle with Them in the concrete spillways and sewers of Los Angeles.

THEM - MOVIE PLOT

New Mexico State Police troopers Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) and Ed Blackburn (Chris Drake) discover a little girl in shock, wandering the desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico. They retrace her steps to a mobile home owned by an FBI agent named Ellinson, who was on vacation in the area with his family. The side of the trailer was ripped open from the outside, the rest of the family is missing and no money was taken. A single unidentifiable animal track seems to be the only clue. Then a strange, pulsating high-pitched noise echos out of the desert on the wind. The little girl briefly reacts in fear when she hears the sound, but this is not noticed by those around her.

A general store owner named "Gramps" Johnson is found dead; his store is also torn apart from the outside. No cash was taken, but a barrel of sugar was smashed open. Gramps' Winchester rifle was fired and is now twisted out of shape. Peterson leaves by car to check on the little girl and make a report, leaving Blackburn to guard the store. Blackburn hears the strange, pulsating sound outside and leaves to investigate; off-camera gunshots are fired, the strange sound grows faster and louder, and Blackburn's scream is heard.

A plaster cast of the odd footprint found near the trailer is sent to Washington, D.C. Peterson's boss later points out that Gramps had time to fire all his ammunition at his attacker, and Peterson's missing partner was a "crack shot", eliminating the possibility of a homicidal maniac. Even more puzzling is the coroner's determination of Johnson's cause of death: a broken neck and back, skull fracture, crushed abdomen, and "enough formic acid in his body to kill 20 men".

The FBI sends Agent Robert Graham (James Arness) to investigate after the Bureau is unable to identify the footprint. With him he brings Drs. Harold Medford (Edmund Gwenn) and his daughter Pat Medford (Joan Weldon), both myrmecologists from the Department of Agriculture. The elder Medford examines the footprint. He later exposes the Ellinson girl to formic acid fumes, which revives her from a catatonic state; she screams, "Them! Them!"

Though his suspicions are validated by the girl's reaction, Medford will not reveal his theory; doing so prematurely might lead "to a nationwide panic". While investigating the Ellinson campsite, Pat screams when she encounters a giant, eight-foot long foraging ant. The lawmen run to her aid and empty their pistols into the insect with little effect. On directions from the elder Medford, Peterson and Graham destroy the ant's antennae, blinding it; they then kill it with sustained fire from a Thompson submachine gun. Harold finally reveals his theory: a colony of giant ants, mutated by radiation from the first atomic bomb test near Alamogordo, is responsible for the killings.

A helicopter search conducted by the Medfords, Peterson, Graham, and Major Kibby, on orders from General O'Brien, discovers the ants' nest. Cyanide gas bombs are tossed into it, and Graham, Peterson, and Pat descend into the nest to kill any survivors. Deep inside, Pat finds evidence that two queen ants have hatched and have escaped to establish new colonies. To avoid a general panic, the elder Medford gives a government task force a briefing on ants, as the government covertly investigates all reports of any unusual activity, even sightings of "flying saucers".

The first report comes from south Texas where a private pilot (Fess Parker) has been committed to a mental hospital after claiming that his aircraft was forced down by UFOs, shaped like giant ants. Next, the Coast Guard receives a report of a giant queen hatching her brood in the hold of a freighter at sea in the Pacific; giant ants attack the ship's crew and there are few survivors. The freighter is later sunk by U. S. Navy gunfire, eliminating one of the queens.

A third report comes in that leads Peterson, Graham, and Major Kibby to a rail yard in Los Angeles where a smashed boxcar has been emptied of 40 tons of sugar. An alcoholic in a hospital "drunk tank" claims to have seen giant ants outside his window. The mutilated body of a father is recovered, but his two young sons with him are missing. Peterson, Graham, and Kibby find evidence that the dad and kids were flying a model aircraft in the Los Angeles River drainage channel near the hospital. Given the apparent convergence of sightings, the President of the United States declares martial law in Los Angeles; more troops are assigned to find the new nest in the vast storm drain network under the city.

Peterson finds the two missing boys alive deep inside the drain system, but they are trapped near the ants' nest. He calls for reinforcements and goes in alone to rescue them, getting both boys to safety just before he is attacked by a giant ant. Graham arrives with reinforcements and kills the ant attacking Peterson, as others swarm to protect the nest. Peterson dies from his injuries. Graham and the other soldiers fight off the ants, but a tunnel collapse isolates Graham. Several ants charge him, but he is able to hold them off with his machine gun just long enough for the other troops to break through and make the rescue. The queen and her young hatchlings are discovered and destroyed with flame throwers.

Afterward, Dr. Medford makes a philosophic observation: "When Man entered the Atomic Age, he opened the door to a new world. What we may eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict."

THEM - MOVIE PRODUCTION

When Them! began production in the fall of 1953, it was originally conceived to be in 3-D and Warner Color. During pre-production, tests were to be shot in color and 3-D. A few color tests were shot of the large-scale ant models, but when it was time to shoot the 3-D test, Warner Bros' "All Media" 3-D camera rig malfunctioned and no footage could be filmed. The next day, a memo was sent out that the color and 3-D aspects of the production were to be scrapped; black and white and widescreen would now be the film's format. Warner Bros. hoped to emulate the "effective shock treatment" effect of its previous science fiction thriller The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms; ultimately, however, the film was not shot in widescreen. Because of the preparation of certain shots, many of the camera set-ups for 3-D still remain in the film, like the opening titles and the flame throwers shots aimed directly at the camera.

Although Warner Bros. was dissatisfied with the color results, the film's titles were printed in a vivid red and blue against a black and white background to give the opening of the film a dramatic "punch". This effect was achieved by an Eastman Color section spliced into each film print. The VHS tape release in 1985, the subsequent laser disc, and the later DVD release have retained this black and white with color title effect.

The entrance to the ants' final nest was shot along the concrete spillways of the Los Angeles River, between the First and Seventh Street Bridges, east of downtown. The depiction of the Chihuahua Desert of southern New Mexico is actually the Mojave Desert near Palmdale, California. Mercy Hospital was a real institution and is now Brownsville Medical Center.

Actor James Whitmore wore "lifts" in his shoes to compensate for the height difference between himself and James Arness. It has also been noted that Whitmore employed bits of "business" (hand gestures and motions) during scenes in which he appeared to draw more attention to his character when not speaking.

The Wilhelm scream, created three years earlier for the film Distant Drums, is used during the action sequences: when a sailor aboard the freighter is grabbed by an ant, when James Whitmore's character is caught in an ant's mandibles, and when an overhead wooden beam falls on a soldier in the Los Angeles storm-drain sequence.

The giant ants were constructed and operated by unseen technicians supervised by Ralph Ayers, and were actually purplish-green in color. During the climactic battle sequence in the Los Angeles sewers, there is a brief shot of one ant moving in the foreground with its side removed, revealing its mechanical interior. This blunder has been obscured in the DVD releases of the film.

THEM - MOVIE RECEPTION

Them! was released in June 1954 and by the end of that year, had accrued US $2 million in distributors' domestic (U.S. and Canada) rentals, making it the year's 51st biggest earner. It was Warner Bros. highest grossing film that year.

The New York Times review noted "... from the moment James Whitmore, playing a New Mexico state trooper, discovers a six-year-old moppet wandering around the desert in a state of shock, to the time when the cause of that mental trauma is traced and destroyed, Them! is taut science fiction." The reviewer in Variety opined it was a "top-notch science fiction shocker. It has a well-plotted story, expertly directed and acted in a matter-of-fact style to rate a chiller payoff and thoroughly satisfy the fans of hackle-raising melodrama."

Since its original release, Them! has become generally regarded as one of the very best science fiction films of the 1950s. Bill Warren described the film as " ... tight, fast-paced and credible ... [T]he picture is suspenseful." Phil Hardy’s The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction noted, "Directed by [Gordon] Douglas in semi-documentary fashion, Them! is one of the best American science fiction films of the fifties." Danny Peary believed the film "Ranks with The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers as the best of the countless 50s science fiction films." In the Time Out Film Guide, David Pirie wrote, "By far the best of the 50s cycle of 'creature features' ... retains a good part of its power today." The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 7.6/10, based on 26 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "One of the best creature features of the early atomic age, Them! features effectively menacing special effects and avoids the self-parody that would taint later monster movies."

Them! was nominated for an Oscar for its special effects and won a Golden Reel Award for best sound editing. The film has been nominated for two American Film Institute lists, AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills and AFI's 10 Top 10 (science fiction genre).

A sample of horror, science fiction comics, with giant ants or wasps at their theme

JULY 26 2023 - INEWS UK

From around the start of the 21st century, the total extent of sea ice in the Arctic has been on the decline, by just under 13 per cent per decade. The thickness of the Northern Hemisphere’s ice, too, is substantially lower, with its maximum being 2.3 metres in the 1990s and only 1.6 metres in the 2010s. The loss of ice at the Arctic is one of the most obvious signs that the earth’s climate is getting warmer.

Flip over to the other side of the globe, though, and things looked to be very different: there’s less data on the thickness of the ice in the Antarctic over time, but what we had until recently didn’t suggest any declines. And over decades, the maximum and minimum extent of the Antarctic sea ice had stayed about the same, maybe even growing in the years up to about 2014.

This has been a bit of a scientific mystery. Why has the Arctic shown the expected effects of global warming, with less ice year-on-year due to the rising ocean temperatures, whereas the Antarctic hasn’t?

A major reason is the surroundings that the continents find themselves in. The Arctic is surrounded by other landmasses; the Antarctic is in the middle of a huge ocean. This creates differences in the winds that surround the two continents, as well as in the extent to which ice can extend outwards beyond the land. Scientists think these and other factors make the Antarctic ice extent much more variable, and made it harder to see any effect of the warming climate.

Until now. 2023 is a wildly different year for the Antarctic than any other in many decades, as you can see on the graph (various versions of which have gone viral on Twitter in recent days). Not only did the Antarctic ice extent start lower than in almost any year on record, but the ice has been dramatically slower than usual to increase in its extent.

Some scientists worry that it simply might not make it back anywhere near the normal range this year.

Could this be the strongest signal yet of global warming’s effects in the Antarctic? Are we seeing effects that are so strong they drown out all the other variability that, until now, obscured the impact of the changing climate?

There’s some direct evidence of this – even though our data on the Antarctic is much worse than for the opposite end of the globe (the extreme conditions make it much more difficult for scientists to visit to collect data), some researchers have noticed that the parts of the continent with lower ice extent tend also to be those with higher air temperatures.

But since there are also many other factors that could be affecting ice in the Southern Hemisphere — the aforementioned winds, and peculiarities of atmospheric pressure — and since the Antarctic does remain somewhat mysterious, it’s difficult to know whether the surprising deviation from the expected ice levels is purely a matter of climate change, or a freakish one-off that won’t happen again next year.

Regardless of the cause, though, the unexpected loss of ice is bad news. Bad news for penguins, who’ll lose large chunks of their habitat, but also bad news for other ecosystems in less intuitive ways: the shape of the ice in the Antarctic affects various ocean currents, and if they change, marine animals in several regions will no longer get the nutrients they need to survive.

It’s also bad news in terms of climate change. More ice means that more heat from the sun is reflected away; if there’s more ocean, that heat gets absorbed. That’s the kind of feedback system that can make climate change, once it gets going, even worse.

So, after many years of it being an exception, the Antarctic ice might just have fallen in line with other regions of the world and started to show signals of climate change. The case for cutting carbon emissions, attempting to stave off these truly global effects, just got even stronger.

Is there any basis of truth in the "Sectasaur" Antarctic John Storm adventure?

The “Sectasaur” Antarctic John Storm adventure is a work of fiction, but it is based on some scientific facts and speculations. For example, the story involves the discovery of a giant prehistoric insect, resembling a giant ant, that was frozen in the Antarctic ice for millions of years. This is inspired by the real fossil genus Titanomyrma, which was a group of giant ants that lived during the Eocene epoch, about 50 million years ago. Some of these ants were as big as hummingbirds, and had wingspans of up to 15 cm. They are known from fossils found in Germany, England, Wyoming, and British Columbia123. The story also explores the possibility of cross-Arctic dispersal of thermophilic insects, which means that these ants could have migrated from Europe to North America via a land bridge that existed across the Arctic when the climate was warmer. This is a hypothesis that has been proposed by some paleontologists to explain the distribution of Titanomyrma and other ancient organisms12. However, there is no evidence that Titanomyrma or any other giant insect ever existed in Antarctica, or that they could survive the freezing temperatures there. The story also involves the use of DNA technology to recreate and enhance extinct species, which is a controversial and hypothetical topic that has ethical and ecological implications. The story is meant to be an entertaining and imaginative adventure, not a realistic or accurate depiction of paleontology or biology.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanomyrma
2. https://interestingengineering.com/science/giant-ant-fossil-life-50-million

3. https://www.livescience.com/14008-giant-ant-fossil.html

Who are the cast in the Antarctic "Sectasaur" short story?

The Antarctic “Sectasaur” short story is a fictional adventure that involves the discovery of giant prehistoric ants in Antarctica. The story has several characters, some of whom are based on real people or celebrities. Here are some of the main cast members:

- Cathy Carter: She is the leader of an international group of scientists who are exploring the Antarctic tunnels. She is also a covert CIA agent who has a secret mission to prevent the Chinese and Swedish teams from gaining any advantage over the US. She is based on the actress Scarlett Johansson 1.

- Lin Po Chang: He is the leader of the Chinese team, which is secretly funded by the Triads. He is a child genius and a martial arts champion who has a keen interest in paleontology. He is based on the actor Jet Li 2.

- Bjorn Atlas: He is the leader of the Swedish team, which is sponsored by a wealthy entrepreneur. He is a headstrong and ambitious explorer who wants to claim the archaeological prize for himself. He is based on the actor Alexander Skarsgård 2.

- Sven Johansson: He is the navigator of the Swedish team and the loyal friend of Bjorn. He is a skilled pilot and a former military officer. He is based on the actor Joel Kinnaman 2.

- Jimmy Watson: He is a member of Cathy’s team and a former journalist. He is the one who leaked the information about the tunnel complex to the media. He is based on the actor Tom Holland 2.

- Dr. Alice Jones: She is a member of Cathy’s team and a renowned paleontologist. She is the one who identified the fossilized jaw of the giant ant. She is based on the actress Emma Watson 2.

- Dr. Sam Smith: He is a member of Cathy’s team and a geneticist. He is the one who extracted the DNA from the fossil and recreated the giant ant. He is based on the actor Benedict Cumberbatch 2.

BBC 13 MARCH 2023 - EAST ANTARCTICA THE SLEEPING GIANT

New research is revealing chinks in East Antarctica's icy armour. Some glaciers in what one explorer called the "home of the blizzard" are melting and might be at risk of sudden collapse. Even small changes to the East Antarctic ice sheet, which contains four-fifths of the world's ice, could have a colossal impact. It holds an estimated 52m (170ft) of potential sea level rise, as compared with 3-4m (10-13ft) in the West Antarctic sheet. Experts fear it could start raising sea levels already this century.

Usually, glaciers move at a glacial pace. The speedy collapse of the Conger's ice shelf came after some of the most dramatically warm weather ever observed in Antarctica. For the first time since satellite monitoring began in 1979, the sea ice extent around Antarctica dropped below 2 million sq km (770,000 sq miles). Less sea ice means more waves battering the ice shelves in front of the glaciers. Massive fields of sea ice off of Adelie Land, Wilkes Land and Princess Elizabeth Land in East Antarctica completely disappeared.

The lack of ice startled scientists. Unlike in the Arctic, Antarctic sea ice had been slightly increasing over the period that satellites had been able to monitor it, and some suggested that circumpolar winds and ocean currents were isolating it from global warming. A study later blamed the 2022 sea ice low on ocean heating, as well as intense winds driven by La Niña and other weather patterns.

Then in March, when the brief austral summer had already waned, a heat wave brought mind-boggling temperatures to East Antarctica. An extreme atmospheric river of water vapour stabbed into the heart of the continent, followed by a high-pressure "heat dome" that kept this warmth from dispersing. In the middle of the ice sheet, Russia's Vostok station, which once recorded the lowest temperature ever seen on Earth (-89.2C/-128.6F) in midwinter, enjoyed a comparatively balmy autumnal -17.7C (-0.1F).

At Dome C, the easterly apex of the sloping ice sheet, European researchers from the Concordia base staged a photo in swimwear under blow-up palm trees. The -10.1C (13.8F) temperature on March 18 was 38.5C (69.3F) higher than average, the biggest rise above normal observed by any weather station in history. Antarctica experts described the heat wave as "impossible", even "inconceivable".

While the heat may have contributed to the Conger ice shelf's collapse, Lieser thinks significant swell from two nearby storms probably struck the fatal blow. But concern that Antarctica may be entering an uncertain new era has only grown. This year, sea ice around the continent fell to a new record low. On 13 February 2023, the sea ice shrank to just 1.91 million square km (737,000 sq miles). "Will it turn around? Have we crossed a tipping point?

Most worrying is the shape of the land underneath the Denman glacier. A more detailed map of Antarctic bedrock in 2019 discovered that it flows over a canyon that drops 3.5km (2.1 miles) below sea level, the deepest point on continental Earth. Furthermore, this canyon reaches all the way to the coast, and unlike Totten, Denman has already begun retreating into it. As the glacier withdraws backward down the slope, more and more of its ice will be exposed to seawater. That could accelerate into a rapid and irreversible retreat, researchers fear.

If all of Denman melted, it would raise global sea levels 1.5m (4.9ft). That would leave low-lying countries like Bangladesh mostly underwater and displace hundreds of millions of people. How soon could it happen? It's hard to say without knowing, for instance, how much of the warm water flowing under the ice tongue is making it all the way to the grounding line.Most of the uncertainty about how much and how fast future sea levels will rise comes from how the East Antarctic ice sheet is going to behave under a warming climate.