New evidence for fossil greenhouse world

Paleoclimatologists from Utrecht University have found fossil pollen and plant remains that are millions of years old in cores drilled off the coast of Antarctica. The find is new evidence for the idea that the Earth must have been a ‘greenhouse world’ some fifty million years ago.

Henk Brinkhuis, professor of paleo-ecology, and PhD student Peter Bijl made their discovery during a two-month-long expedition on the international research ship JOIDES Resolution. Along with some thirty colleagues from various European countries they did research at seven sites off the coast of Wilkes Land. Analysis of the sediments in the cores from wells drilled in the seafloor made it possible to reconstruct climates of the past fifty million years.

Check out the video report of the expedition.