Dinosaurs lived in forests in Antarctica during Cretaceous, study finds

[FfFfFfFF 58,083]

 Scientists drilling off the coast of West Antarctica have found the fossil remains of forests that grew in the region 90 million years ago, in the dinosaurs era.

Their analysis of the material indicates the continent back then would have been as warm as parts of Europe are today but that global sea levels would have been over 100m higher than at present.

AWI and its partners, including the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), used a novel cassette drill-mechanism called MeBo to extract core material some 30m under the seafloor.

In the near absence of geological records from south of the Antarctic Circle, it is disputed whether polar ice could exist under such environmental conditions. Scientists we use a sedimentary sequence recovered from the West Antarctic shelf—the southernmost Cretaceous record reported so far—and show that a temperate lowland rainforest environment existed sometime 92 to 83 million years ago.

When the team examined the sediments in the lab, it found traces of ancient soils and pollen and even inact 3-metre long tree roots, all embedded in a mudstone.

Data suggests the average temperatures during the Cretaceous period would have been mid-teens Celsius, while in the summer the average would've been higher, excedeeing 20 Celius degress. 

At the same time, the vegetation was most likely very special because all plants had to face several months of complete darkness. 

Sources: http://www.envirolink.org/2020/04/01/dinosaurs-walked-through-antarctic-forests/, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2148-5#article-info

[Lord Temptation 11,209]

Wasn’t Australia still attached to Antarctica 100 million years ago? If Australia had dinosaurs, which it certainly did (even though it was close to the south pole) then they could have easily crossed into Antarctica. It’s fabulous news regardless! 

 

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

That must have been beautiful 

[Economy 52,842]

Yeah earth was much warmer then that it was now

 

This is why I have some optimism with respect to global warming

 

Before yall come at me tho I'm not saying to not take it seriously or to not go green or that global warming doesn't matter. I mean the rapid rate causes a lot of damage

 

I just mean I think opinions that earth will be uninhabitable are a little exagerated. I don't think we will be gone. We will just have a tough transition but earth will survive

 

[DeluluSwine 3,921]

15 minutes ago, Economy said:

Yeah earth was much warmer then that it was now

 

This is why I have some optimism with respect to global warming

 

Before yall come at me tho I'm not saying to not take it seriously or to not go green or that global warming doesn't matter. I mean the rapid rate causes a lot of damage

 

I just mean I think opinions that earth will be uninhabitable are a little exagerated. I don't think we will be gone. We will just have a tough transition but earth will survive

 

humans weren’t alive to pollute the air then

[Economy 52,842]

1 minute ago, DeluluSwine said:

humans weren’t alive to pollute the air then

That wasn't my point

[Economy 52,842]

@DeluluSwine lmao all u want I'm just trying to find a positive silver lining here and pointing out that at least Global uninhabitation is an unlikely worst case scenario that sometimes is spoken like it's what's gonna happen

 

Relax, I'm not some climate change denier saying it's not a problem

 

I find it hopeful and comforting to know earth survived much warmer temperatures in the past (as much as 5C I think I read before) so even if our lives become hell at least earth will likely still be here

 

That's all I'm saying

[Thomas P 18,479]

That’s super interesting!

Gotta say, GGD should have more science threads, because often times they make me happier than the other parts of the site 

[Guest Adarsh]

14 minutes ago, Economy said:

@DeluluSwine lmao all u want I'm just trying to find a positive silver lining here and pointing out that at least Global uninhabitation is an unlikely worst case scenario that sometimes is spoken like it's what's gonna happen

 

Relax, I'm not some climate change denier saying it's not a problem

 

I find it hopeful and comforting to know earth survived much warmer temperatures in the past (as much as 5C I think I read before) so even if our lives become hell at least earth will likely still be here

 

That's all I'm saying

Earth will always be here. We won’t. We’ll only wipe our existence if we keep polluting 

[Economy 52,842]

6 minutes ago, Adarsh said:

Earth will always be here. We won’t. We’ll only wipe our existence if we keep polluting 

Humans are among the most adaptable species on earth. We can live in all kinds of climates and even capable of things like indoor farming with controlled environments which is on the rise

 

I don't think the biggest risk is humans going extinct (tho our lives would be hell with more expensive food, city displacement, storms etc etc etc). But to say we will be extinct I think is an unlikely worst case scenario. If even basic vegetation and some animal life survives we would

 

The mass extinctions would apply to a lot of species but humans would be one of the last to go tbh