Tiny marine creatures found on the seabed on opposite sides of the vast West Antarctic ice sheet give a strong hint of the risks of sea level rise caused by climate change, scientists said Tuesday. The discovery of very similar colonies of bryozoans, animals that anchor themselves to the seabed, in both the Ross and Weddell Seas are a clue that the ice sheet once thawed and the seas were once linked, they said. West Antarctica holds enough ice to raise world sea levels by between 3.5 and 5 meters (11-16 ft) if the sheet collapsed. Some scientists believe it may have vanished during a natural warm period within the last few hundred thousand years.

Tiny Antarctic creatures hint at sea level rise. (2010, September 3). Malaya Business Insight, p. B5.