Traces of 90 million year old rainforest in Antarctica found NOW

Researchers have found the remains of a rainforest in Antarctica that covered the continent’s ice shelves 90 million years ago. They describe the find in the trade journal Nature.

The scientists found tree roots and pollen in the seabed near the continent. Analysis on these traces shows that it used to be considerably warmer in Antarctica, where it can now reach -55 degrees Celsius at its coldest point.

The remains are from the Cretaceous, a period of time that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago. It was known that there was a rainforest on the continent millions of years ago, but little was known about the climate in Antarctica during the chalk.

Scientists now conclude that temperatures during the summers in West Antarctica rose to 19 degrees Celsius for 90 million years. The water of rivers and swamps could reach 20 degrees.

What makes this extra fascinating to the researchers is that it is non-stop night at the South Pole four months a year. So there is no sunlight for a third of a year, which makes plant growth more difficult. However, there was a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

How Antarctica could cool to such an extent that rainforest was replaced by ice floes is still unknown.

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