Antarctic forests
From
United Press International:
Fossil forest yields ancient life clues
A 100-million-year-old fossil forest on an island east of New Zealand has provided clues about ancient life close to the South Pole, researchers say.
Researchers from Monash University in Australia reported the discovery of large trees, early flowering plants, seed cones and rare insects preserved in a rock formation in the Chatham Islands.
The fossils are the first evidence of life close to the South Pole during the Cretaceous period, 145 million to 65 million years ago, a time researchers say was a period of extreme greenhouse conditions on Earth.
"One hundred million years ago, the Earth was in the grip of a greenhouse effect -- a planet of extreme heat with minimal ice (except in the high altitudes) and sea levels of up to 200 meters (650 feet) higher than today," Monash paleontologists Professor Stillwell said.
Just wow! A bit more:
The discovery was made in one of the most remote fossil locations in the Southern Hemisphere, more than 500 miles east of New Zealand.
"Never before have we had evidence about what life existed near the South Pole 90 to 100 million years, or the conditions that life on land experienced," Stillwell said.
Would have loved to have seen the expression on Professor Stillwell's face when he realized just what he was looking at... Very cool. And a 200 meter shift in sea level is nothing to sneeze at -- what the global warmistas are crying about is two or three inches in the next hundred years. That is peanuts...
Posted by DaveH at December 29, 2012 12:54 PM