Antarctica may have once been home to warm , waterlogged ecosystem skirt by ferns and coniferous tree Tree 90 million years ago .
An depth psychology of ancient soil extracted from the western area of Antarctica suggests the icy continent may have once been more like to advanced New Zealand than the frigid temperatures that qualify it today , according to finding published inNature . If Antarctica was warmer , then geoscientists from theAlfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Researchin Germany and researchers from theImperial College Londonargue that the rest of the globe ’s climate was similarly incredibly ardent at the sentence .
" The preservation of this 90 - million - year - old timberland is exceptional , but even more surprising is the populace it reveals . Even during calendar month of dark , sloughy temperate rain forest were able to grow tight to the South Pole , revealing an even warmer climate than we expected , ” said co - author Professor Tina van de Flierdt , from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial , in astatement .
Marked as the heyday for dinosaurs , the mid - Cretaceous period between 80 and 155 million years ago was one of the warmest periods in Earth ’s history . mellow level of atmospheric carbon aim ardent temperatures around the planet , resulting in tropical temperature averages as high-pitched as 35 ° C ( 95 ° F ) and a sea tier 170 meters ( 557 feet ) higher than today . But a full picture of life at the South Pole has long sidestep scientist .
To tack together the ancient teaser , an international team of investigator elicit sediment samples from the seabed near an area make out as the Amundsen Sea Embayment close to Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers in West Antarctica . One section of the core sample – a large cylindrical sample distribution used to keep layer of grime – was a strange gloss that made it look as though it belonged on country rather than at the bottom of the ocean . CT - scan of the section divulge fossilized stem system so well - preserved that scientists could see single cell structures , as well as pollen and spore specimens from some of the first flowering plant life ever found at such Antarctic parallel .
But what case of conditions would have support such life ? The squad used simulated climate models of known selective information about the flowered and faunal specimen to determine conditions that might have brook their growth .
The finding paint a picture that Antarctica check modal temperature of around 12 ° C ( 53 ° farad ) – about 2 ° degree centigrade warm than the mean temperature in Germany today . Summer temperatures were likely as gamy as 19 ° deoxycytidine monophosphate ( 66 ° F ) with swamp and rivers seeing alike temperature . This warm climate intend there was likely no frappe cap at the meter , but alternatively the continent was compensate in dim vegetation growth supported by heavy rainfall . Because of its southerly fix , the continent in all likelihood had a four - month frigid night , intend it was void of sun for about one - third of the twelvemonth .
