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Antarctic Forest Discovered
Ron gets a petrified no-prize for bringing us this Discovery Channel On-line article detailing the discovery of three ancient anarctic forests. Dated to about 260 million years ago, these Permian stands of trees are very early examples of a deciduous species now long extinct.
What I find puzzling is, if I'm remembering my continental drift stuff correctly (no promises there), Antarctica may not have been at the south pole around 250 million years ago, which would seem to make the find rather less important for understanding ancient polar climates.
oddly enough, while the plates that hold Antarctica were moving about constantly, at 250mya, that were actually fairly close to being at the south pole - not quite on top of it, but close enough that if it wasn't quite polar, then it would've been that sub-arctic sort of weather anyway.
continental drift source: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/Contdrift.shtml
that and there was an ice age (between the Pennsylvanian and Permian periods) just ending then as well http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/ice_ages/when_ice_ages.html
Posted by: ron on November 7, 2004 05:37 PM