Now Reading: Ancient rainforest grew near South Pole 90 million years ago
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Ancient rainforest grew near South Pole 90 million years ago
A seabed sediment core from West Antarctica contains fossilised roots, pollen and spores from a temperate rainforest that grew about 90 million years ago, roughly 900 km from the South Pole. The…
The Story in Brief
A seabed sediment core from West Antarctica contains fossilised roots, pollen and spores from a temperate rainforest that grew about 90 million years ago, roughly 900 km from the South Pole. The discovery, from a 2017 Polarstern expedition in the Amundsen Sea, places the forest at about 82 degrees south during the Cretaceous Period.
The roots show that the plants grew in the soil where they were found, while chemical evidence points to a wet ecosystem. Scientists estimate average annual temperatures of about 12°C, with summer temperatures near 19°C, despite months of polar darkness. Climate modelling suggests atmospheric carbon dioxide may have ranged between 1,120 and 1,680 parts per million. Amber fragments later found in the same core support evidence of resin-producing trees.
The Indian Opinion
Claims that Antarctica was once simply a tropical paradise flatten the evidence. Scientists describe a temperate rainforest that faced months without sunlight, not a permanently hot jungle. Equally, this ancient climate cannot by itself predict every detail of modern warming, since ice cover, oceans and atmospheric carbon dioxide all differed. The useful comparison is narrower: what happens as ice disappears and carbon dioxide rises? Future Antarctic ice loss and measured carbon dioxide levels will provide the harder test.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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