
Evidence of 90M-year-old rainforest uncovered beneath Antarctic ice - psychanarch
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/evidence-90-million-year-old-rainforest-uncovered-beneath-antarctic-ice-n1175021
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puranjay
I wonder what fossil treasures are sitting beneath the ice in Antarctica. Most
people don't realize how massive the continent is since it doesn't show up
fully on maps - it is nearly 1.5 times the size of America.

If it was a wetter, warmer place millions of years ago, it would have been
teeming with life.

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ad404b8a372f2b9
Just to clarify because it was unclear to me and areas are unintuitive with
map projections, it's 1.5 times the size of the United States. The U.S is ~10
million km^2, Antarctica 14 million km^2, and the American continent 42
million km^2

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m463
I've always thought a few school subjects should be put off until kids are
mature enough to "get" them.

One is history class (much more meaningful when you are old enough to
understand human nature) and another is mercator projections.

I always thought Canada was so much bigger than the US but they're about the
same size - 3.5m sq miles.

~~~
puranjay
> I always thought Canada was so much bigger than the US but they're about the
> same size - 3.5m sq miles

That's because the largest state, Alaska, appears like its a part of the
Canadian landmass

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m463
I think this shows it best:

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Worlds_a...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Worlds_animate.gif)

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Endlessly
One explanation would be Earth’s spin axis was in a different spot millions of
years ago due to polar shift.

Related research:

[https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/millions-of-
yea...](https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/millions-of-years-ago-
the-poles-moved-and-it-could-have-triggered-an-ice-age)

~~~
chrisco255
True polar wander sounds like one of the most terrifying natural disasters I
could imagine.

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Endlessly
Gradual polar shift happens over millions of years; specifically
characteristic rate of true polar wander is 1° or less per million years.

If the shifting occurs as a “Cataclysmic” polar shift [1] or geomagnetic
reversal [2], the periodic reversal of the Earth's magnetic field (effectively
switching the north and south magnetic poles) — I agree that it would likely
have terrifying results for the inhabitants of Earth.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataclysmic_pole_shift_hypot...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataclysmic_pole_shift_hypothesis)

[2]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal)

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saagarjha
I was wondering how they knew it was climate change and not continental drift
and it seems like Antarctica hasn’t moved much in the last 100 million years.

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jaspax
Now if we would only get to work on global warming we could restore the
Antarctic jungle to its proper Mesozoic glory.

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Reelin
Original paper:
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2148-5](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2148-5)

~~~
aww_dang
>"A climate model simulation shows that the reconstructed temperate climate at
this high latitude requires a combination of both atmospheric carbon dioxide
concentrations of 1,120–1,680 parts per million"

Does this allow for other methods of warming? Does it assume that all things
would be equal except for carbon dioxide levels? If so, why?

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julienchastang
On this topic, check out the recent PBS Nova: Polar Extremes which discusses
the climatic history of the earth and findings such as this one.

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degenerate
You can watch it here: [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/polar-
extremes/](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/polar-extremes/)

If you get blocked because of region; New York works.

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pvaldes
Fortunately some of those genus survived up to our time, including the only
parasite conifer known that is alive. Plants in those forests would look like
this:

[https://www.junglegardens.org/blog-posts/2018/12/3/the-
asian...](https://www.junglegardens.org/blog-posts/2018/12/3/the-asian-
bayberry-nageia-nagi)

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benfrain
Anyone else wonder what kind of horrors are currently frozen down there. I’m
thinking smallpox and other problems we believed were gone for good.

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LandR
Would an ancient virus be any harm to modern humans? Or would we be too
different to what was around millions of years ago for it to be a le to
survive and infect people?

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pvaldes
I think so. We can be modern, but we still breath exactly like any other
mammal, including prehistoric species. Our methabolic routes are shared with
lots of other species, extant and extinct

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dmos62
If Earth's ice caps' ice cover were to melt, how much landmass would that
uncover? ice-cap - ice + water = ?

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Kaiyou
Antarctica is about 150% the size of Europe.

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mr_toad
The combination of melted ice and thermal expansion would mean that a lot of
it would be flooded.

