ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

Home → Science

Scientists find evidence of ancient tropical rainforest in Antarctica

Tibi PuiubyTibi Puiu
April 1, 2020 - Updated on April 3, 2020
in Climate, Science
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSubmit to Reddit
Illustration of the Antarctic rainforest. Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut/James McKay.

The icy continent of Antarctica wasn’t always the barren landscape that we all know today. As early as 90 million years ago, the continent may have been covered in a temperate rainforest, similar to what you’d find in today’s New Zealand, instead of an ice cap.

The study was carried out by an international team of experts who analyzed preserved roots, pollen, and spores found in cores of sediment drilled within 900 kilometers of the South Pole.

Map of the drill site and how continents were arranged 90 million years ago. Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut.

The fossilized soil is estimated to be 90 million years old, placing it in the mid-Cretaceous, a geological period during which the dinosaurs were at their heyday.

This was also the warmest period in the past 140 million years, with temperatures easily reaching 35 degrees Celsius in the tropics. Sea levels were also a staggering 170 meters (560 feet) higher than today.

However, not much is known about what the environment looked like in the South Pole during that period.

Researchers knew they were on to something when they noticed a strange color in a section of a sediment core drilled into the seabed near the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers in West Antarctica.

“During the initial shipboard assessments, the unusual colouration of the sediment layer quickly caught our attention; it clearly differed from the layers above it,” said first author Dr Johann Klages, a geologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany.

Germany’s icebreaking research vessel POLARSTERN, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut/Johann Klages.

Upon analyzing this section with computer tomography techniques, the scientists came across a dense network of fossil roots. The samples were pristinely preserved, allowing the researchers to make out individual cell structures. There were even remnants of flowering plants — the earliest ever found at such high Antarctic latitudes.

RelatedPosts

What’s the largest desert in the world? (Hint: It’s not the Sahara, according to experts)
Gaping hole larger than the Netherlands opens up in icy sea off Antarctica
The stories of Antarctic stations: from science to babies, crime, and beer culture
Scientists discover hidden water reserve under Antarctic ice

In order to establish the climatic conditions of the time, the team compared the environments in which the fossilized plants’ modern descendants live. They also took into account temperature and precipitation indicators within the sample.

“It was particular fascinating to see the well-preserved diverse fossil pollen and other plant remains in a sediment deposited some 90 million years ago, near the South Pole,” said Professor Ulrich Salzmann, a palaeoecologist at Northumbria University and co-author of the new study.

“The numerous plant remains indicate that the coast of West Antarctica was, back then, a dense temperate, swampy forest, similar to the forests found in New Zealand today,” he added.

The analysis suggests that the annual mean air temperature in the South Pole at the time was around 12 degrees Celsius. For comparison, that’s two degrees warmer than the mean temperature in Germany today.

Summer was much warmer, with temperatures hovering at around 19 degrees Celsius, while rivers and swamps were likely around 20 degrees in temperature. Regarding precipitation, Antarctica was probably as rainy as today’s Wales.

Considering these climatic conditions, Antarctica was completely ice-free. This was despite a four-month polar night, meaning for a third of every year there was no life-giving sunlight at all.

“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,” said Professor Tina van de Flierdt, from the Department of Earth Science & Engineering at Imperial College London.

Antarctica’s surprisingly warm and tropical past suggests that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were much higher than expected during the mid-Cretaceous period, which lasted from 115 to 80 million years ago. According to the researchers, CO2 levels may have been as high as 1680 parts per million (ppm), roughly four times higher than they are today.

“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.

Tags: antarcticarainforest

ShareTweetShare
Tibi Puiu

Tibi Puiu

Tibi is a science journalist and co-founder of ZME Science. He writes mainly about emerging tech, physics, climate, and space. In his spare time, Tibi likes to make weird music on his computer and groom felines. He has a B.Sc in mechanical engineering and an M.Sc in renewable energy systems.

Related Posts

Environment

Trees in the Amazon are “running” uphill to escape from climate change

byMihai Andrei
10 months ago
Anthropology

People living in Antarctica are developing a new accent

byRupendra Brahambhatt
1 year ago
Scientists deploying the Icefin robot in Antarctica.
Climate

Meet Icefin, the torpedo robot that studies the Doomsday Glacier from down below

byRupendra Brahambhatt
2 years ago
Climate

So one of Antarctica’s regions has lost thousands of billions of tons of ice

byFermin Koop
2 years ago

Recent news

AI and Brain Scans Reveal Why You Struggle to Recognize Faces of People of Other Races

May 13, 2025

Mysterious Stone Circles on Remote Scottish Island May Have Been Home to Humans Before Stonehenge Existed

May 12, 2025

People Spend $12,000 to Tattoo Their Eyes and Change Their Color but the Risks Are Still Unknown

May 12, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Editorial Policy
  • Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
  • How we review products
  • Contact

© 2007-2025 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Science News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Space
  • Future
  • Features
    • Natural Sciences
    • Physics
      • Matter and Energy
      • Quantum Mechanics
      • Thermodynamics
    • Chemistry
      • Periodic Table
      • Applied Chemistry
      • Materials
      • Physical Chemistry
    • Biology
      • Anatomy
      • Biochemistry
      • Ecology
      • Genetics
      • Microbiology
      • Plants and Fungi
    • Geology and Paleontology
      • Planet Earth
      • Earth Dynamics
      • Rocks and Minerals
      • Volcanoes
      • Dinosaurs
      • Fossils
    • Animals
      • Mammals
      • Birds
      • Fish
      • Amphibians
      • Reptiles
      • Invertebrates
      • Pets
      • Conservation
      • Animal facts
    • Climate and Weather
      • Climate change
      • Weather and atmosphere
    • Health
      • Drugs
      • Diseases and Conditions
      • Human Body
      • Mind and Brain
      • Food and Nutrition
      • Wellness
    • History and Humanities
      • Anthropology
      • Archaeology
      • History
      • Economics
      • People
      • Sociology
    • Space & Astronomy
      • The Solar System
      • Sun
      • The Moon
      • Planets
      • Asteroids, meteors & comets
      • Astronomy
      • Astrophysics
      • Cosmology
      • Exoplanets & Alien Life
      • Spaceflight and Exploration
    • Technology
      • Computer Science & IT
      • Engineering
      • Inventions
      • Sustainability
      • Renewable Energy
      • Green Living
    • Culture
    • Resources
  • Videos
  • Reviews
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Editorial policy
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2025 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.