Kerguelen- A Relic of a Kingdom Lost

(picture shown was created by freodhoric (freodhoric.deviantart.com/) so thank you very much to him)

There are many legends about ancient landmasses which have sunk beneath the waves, possibly to return in the future-if they ever did at all that is. Such places include Atlantis, the home of an ancient civilisation recorded by Plato. Another was the hypothetical landmass of Lemuria in the Indian Ocean, and again Mu in the Pacific, also known as Zealandia. However, an existing ancient landmass has been fairly overlooked in the concept of history, and potentially of the future. This is the Kerguelen plateau, which today is only represented by some small islands, the kerguelen islands, at about 7200km2 in area and the McDonald islands and Heard Island, which although larger than say, Malta is quite small to other landmasses. The entire plateau though measures about 1.25 million square kilometres, and has resurfaced 4 times or so over the last 130 million years. It is possible that it could do this in future as well. In the modern day, the islands are very sparse due to both the harsh cold climate and their small size. But it doesn’t have to be this way forever.

To assess what could evolve on these islands, one must assess what is already present, as well as what could arrive there over time. In terms of native fauna, the islands were dominated mostly by seabirds due to the sparse terrain, along with insects, allowing vast growths of lichen moss, grasses and endemic cabbages, with no trees or bushes surviving (although evidence suggests that araucariacaea trees were present in the Mesozoic and early cenozoic eras where a much warmer climate was present). The coasts on the other hand were flowing with vast amounts of seabirds, such as gulls, terns, petrels, skuas, albatrosses, the Eaton’s pintail and even 4 species of penguin, as well as seals. The McDonald and Heard Islands were mostly unscathed by the presence of man, but the larger Kerguelen islands were much more drastically affected. As of the present year of this entry, the islands are estimated to be home to well over 3000 bizet sheep, 100 mouflons (or mountain sheep), 4000 reindeer taken from Norway, and numerous numbers of rats, mice, rabbits, cats and mallards, as well as trout in the previously empty streams and rivers. These herbivores devastated much of the local flora, and as in other islands, the rats would often raid the nests of seabirds, while cats would hunt the birds themselves, though also keeping the rabbit population in check as time went on. Even after the disappearance of man and the disasters that that bought, the islands weathered fairly well. Culling programs were carried out in later years to more efficiency, but as more pressing matters came, such as wars and pollution problems, the islands were ignored in favour of other habitats. The islands did manage to benefit though in some ways from the warmer temperature. They were reduced somewhat in area by rising seas, but they also allowed the flora to grow in more abundance, and for seeds from further north to survive more easily, either from human ships or naturally. After the fall of man and the stabilising of the global climate, the islands resumed their path, with a new set of events taking place. By the start of the postanthropocene (6500AD), the fauna was beginning to make changes in accustom to the environment. While the vegetation was now more prevalent and less sparse than it had been before, as new species of shrub, grass and hardy flowers had made their way to the island, the herbivores experienced a shift in size. The reindeers, which had previously been giants compared to the other animals, were already starting to noticeably reduce in size. As thousands of years turned into millions of years, there was a fairly standard island layout to the creatures. The larger animals like reindeer and to a lesser extent the sheep would reduce in size due to the lack of available food. Adult deer 4 million years hence would weigh no more than 120kg as males and 80kg as females, and have shorter legs and larger heads than the ancestors to consume food better. The mouflon descendants survived in more upland habitats and also dwarfed in the conditions, often reaching less than 40kg. The normal Bizet sheep seemed well adapted and thus stayed a similar size, though adapting to a more meagre diet. The other animals of the islands however increased in size significantly with lack of competition. Rabbits without competition from other animals and with more food grew much larger, rivalling the extinct Majorcan nuralagus in size, though faster and more agile, and prone to living in groups so it could escape the local cats, along with thicker fur to keep warm. Lemming like rodents descended from mice would consume roots and nibble on grain beneath the feet of these larger herbivores. The islands main predators were the ruthless descendants of feral cats, the largest of which reaching over 30kg, and capable of preying not only on rabbits but also on young sheep. Smaller predator niches, such as hunters of rodents and young seabirds would be occupied by rat derived creatures, though more traditional omnivores and herbivores were also present. The descendants of the mallard unfortunately outcompeted the native ducks and thrived in wet environments, developing into larger flightless forms, even dabbling into terrestrial behaviour. This small but functional ecosystem was remaining the same, until around 5 million AD.

5 million AD was the time when the Ice ages starting in the Pleistocene were beginning to end, and the world was becoming warmer even than during the Holocene. The animals were adapting to a more plentiful supply of food once again when their ecosystem became damaged by an intense array of volcanic activity occurring via underwater volcanoes. This led to the formation of new islands, which formed, died down and fused together at a chaotic rate. This allowed the organisms to expand their range into these new territories, and it also led to other organisms rafting here, such as shrubs, small insects and other hardy plants. It even carried seeds for beeches, cannabacae, araliaceae, ferns and even the returning araucaria trees, leading to the first forests emerging once again, leading for a whole new habitat for the animals to colonise. What these animals did not comprehend was that the Kerguelen Plateau was rising once again. This caused a climatic shift, as the volcanic activity released greenhouse gases over time, contributing to global warming and a rise in sea levels. Despite this, the islands continued to grow bigger, and in vague relation to the subcontinent of India, also slowly moved north. By 10 million years hence or the start of the kergucene era, it had reached a similar size to its modern one- a staggering 1.25 million square kilometres- over twice the size of Madagascar. This vast virgin land took time for the animals to colonise, and also allowed some groups of birds such as rails, pigeons, corvids and finches to move to the island naturally. Here they intermingled with the local birds, such as the flightless ducks, which led to a partitioning of niches. The plateau moved over 15 degrees north, which still left it well south of such places as Madagascar and the newly forming continent of Lemuria (split from East Africa), something coinciding with the warming climate. In fact by the thermocene era (33-40 million hence) the world was as warm as the late Eocene, with even Antarctica being home to tundras and coniferous forests. Kerguelen itself was left slightly (i.e. 1-2+C average) warmer than modern day New Zealand, and so became home to a flourishing ecosystem mixing the typical large birds you would find in other islands around the world with a host of mammals that have gone extinct elsewhere. Here, deer still graze on the plains alongside strange rabbits and terrestrial anatids, while being chased by various felids. In the trees, vast colonies of pigeons and finches do their best to protect their nests from arboreal rat descendents different to any you would see anywhere else. Flightless rails pick out insects and detritus under the feet of enormous bovines that wonder through the forests and plains, and the mountains are still ripe with the calls of sheep. An ironic remnant of a bygone age, the age of the Holocene, this land remains as a legacy to the humans that once called this world home. This is Kerguelen: the Lost Kingdom.


Yes, I'm not really working on Atlantis at the moment, but I have had the idea of instead doing a future project involving another potential landmass which actually did exist during the Mesozoic era. Partially rejuvenated both by human activity and volcanic reemergence, this new subcontinent will be a place of plenty for almost any organism, and a refuge for groups long since extinct elsewhere.