Trees are believed to have lived through
extremes of complete darkness and continuous sunlight
Geologists have discovered
280-million-year-old tree fossils in what is believed to be evidence
of the oldest polar forest found in Antarctica.
Erik Gulbranson and
John Isbell from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee trekked across
the Transantarctic Mountains during the continent’s summer,
between November and January.
They found the ancient specimens among
the rocks where a leafy forest once grew.
The team previously found fossil fragments of
13 trees which they estimated were over 260 million years
old, meaning the forest would have grown before the first
dinosaurs appeared at the end of the Permian period.
The team have now returned to the frozen
slopes once more to find out how the forest could have flourished
there.
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