Antarctica was covered in rainforests when dinosaurs roamed Earth

Antarctica was covered in rainforests when dinosaurs roamed Earth

Antarctica was covered in rainforest in the time of the dinosaurs, according to a new study.

Source: Metro.com

Researchers have found evidence the South Pole had a climate and forests similar to New Zealand today in a startling discovery.

The team discovered soil from an ancient rainforest from the Cretaceous period within 900 km of the South Pole.

The analysis carried out by an international team of researchers of roots, pollen and spores shows the world was a lot warmer than previously thought.

Professor Tina van de Flierdt, from the Department of Earth Science & Engineering at Imperial College, London, said: ‘The preservation of this 90-million-year-old forest is exceptional, but even more surprising is the world it reveals.

‘Even during months of darkness, swampy temperate rainforests were able to grow close to the South Pole, revealing an even warmer climate than we expected.’

Embargoed to 1600 Wednesday April 01 Undated handout photo issued by the Alfred Wegener Institute of Professor Tina van de Flierdt with colleague Dr Johann Klages working on a sample of ancient soil. A new study says Antarctica may be covered in polar ice today, but the region once housed swampy rainforests and an average temperature of around 12C. PA Photo. Issue date: Wednesday April 1, 2020. See PA story SCIENCE Antarctica. Photo credit should read: T Ronge/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Professor Tina van de Flierdt with colleague Dr Johann Klages working on a sample of ancient soil. (PA)

The heyday of the dinosaurs was the warmest period on Earth in the past 140 million years, with temperatures at 35 degrees and sea level 170 metres higher than today.

Despite the Antarctic Circle living through a four-month polar night, researchers discovered evidence it was once a temperate rainforest.

The evidence for the Antarctic forest comes from a core of sediment drilled into the seabed near the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers in West Antarctica.

Embargoed to 1600 Wednesday April 01 Undated handout photo issued by the Alfred Wegener Institute of a mpa showing the drill site in WEst Antarctica from where the sediment core was extracted and how the continents were arranged 90 million years ago. A new study says Antarctica may be covered in polar ice today, but the region once housed swampy rainforests and an average temperature of around 12C. PA Photo. Issue date: Wednesday April 1, 2020. See PA story SCIENCE Antarctica. Photo credit should read: Alfred Wegener Institute/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
A new study says Antarctica may be covered in polar ice today, but the region once housed swampy rainforests and an average temperature of around 12C. (PA)

One section of the core, that would have originally been deposited on land, caught the researchers’ attention with its strange colour.

The team discovered a dense network of fossil roots, and they were able to count pollen and spores from plants.

Embargoed to 1600 Wednesday April 01 Undated handout photo issued by the Alfred Wegener Institute of Germany's polar research vessel, operated by the Institute, which brought back core samples from West Antarctica. A new study says Antarctica may be covered in polar ice today, but the region once housed swampy rainforests and an average temperature of around 12C. PA Photo. Issue date: Wednesday April 1, 2020. See PA story SCIENCE Antarctica. Photo credit should read: Johann Klages/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Germany’s polar research vessel, operated by the Institute, which brought back core samples from West Antarctica. (PA)

Lead author Dr Johann Klages, from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, said: ‘Before our study, the general assumption was that the global carbon dioxide concentration in the Cretaceous was roughly 1000 ppm.

‘But in our model-based experiments, it took concentration levels of 1120 to 1680 ppm to reach the average temperatures back then in the Antarctic.”

The findings were published in the journal Nature.

Source: Metro.com

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