Photo and caption by Brian Glazer

Dessicated, mummified, and eroded by years of enduring katabatic winds and granite sands in Victoria Valley of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, this seal carcass was found at an elevation of 600m and over 40km from the coast. Some such seal carcasses in the Dry Valleys have been carbon dated to up to 2600 years old. What drives the seals to their death away from McMurdo Sound is unknown.

Location: Victoria Valley, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica