Antarctica
Several seal species breed exclusively in Antarctica including the Leopard Seal (ARKive), the Crabeater Seal (ARKive), and the Ross Seal (ARKive).
Remarkably, the Emperor
Penguin (Wikipedia)
breeds during the antarctic winter. Two other birds also
breed solely in Antarctica, the South Polar Skua (AAD)
and the Antarctic Petrel (ARKive).
The antarctic dragonfish genera Cygnodraco (AcanthoWeb)
and Prionodraco (eol), the
recently described eelpout genus Gosztonyia
(Wildlife
Extra), and
the barbled plunderfish genera Histiodraco (BOLD) and Dolloidraco (FishBase)
are
unique to antarctic waters. Among other fish endemic to these frigid
waters are the Naked Dragonfish Gymnodraco
acuticeps (p. 5 of Underwater
Field Guide to Ross Is. pdf file), the Sharp-spined Notothen Trematomus pennellii
(eol),
Cryothenia
amphitreta (Univ. Illinois),
Charcot's Pseudo-icefish Parachaenichthys
charcoti (Antarctic Underwater Field Guide), Pogonophryne brevibarbata (zin.ru pdf file),
Chionodraco hamatus (WoRMS), and a crocodile icefish Pagetopsis
macropterus (FishBase).
Land invertebrates include a number of endemic springtails (Bishop
Museum pdf file) with one, Anurophorus subpolaris,
known as far south as 84° 47' S (Te
Papa). The
Maudheimiidae (Bishop
Museum pdf file) is an endemic family of
mites.
A family of marine invertebrates known only from Antarctica are the
coldwater corals of the family Ainigmaptilidae (Smithsonian
pdf file). Other endemic marine invertebrates
include the gastropods Pleurotomella
endeavourensis (Te
Papa) and Bathybembix delicatula (Antarctic Invertebrates), a nudibranch Notaeolidia
schmekelae (p. 16 of Underwater
Field Guide to Ross Is. pdf file), a pycnogonid Eurycyde antarctica (Antarctic Invertebrates), a sponge Acanthopolymastia acanthoxa
(p. 5 of Zootaxa
pdf file), a gorgonia Tauroprimnoa
austasensis (EurekAlert!),
an isopod crustacean Eurycope
crassiramis (Zootaxa
pdf file), and the amphipod crustaceans Eusirus giganteus (flickr) and Epimeria rimicarinata (eol).
Recently over 700 new species of marine invertebrates have
been discovered off Antarctica (BBC).
A
moss species Grimmia
lawiana (Handbook
of Antarctic Mosses) is known only from
Antarctica,
but there are no endemic vascular plant species.
Antarctica has a number of unique
freshwater diatoms (Antarctic
Freshwater Diatoms) and a number of endemic lichens such as Buellia frigida (antmoss.nipr.ac.jp), Lecidella greenii (eol), and Calvitimela uniseptata (eol).