Is the Antarctic once covered by lush subtropical forests?

Scientists have discovered that the Antarctic, coldest, coldest region in the world was once covered by subtropical forests about 300 million years ago.

According to Marcelo Leppe, a biologist working at the Chilean National Institute of Antarctica, told the EFE website: "Most scientists agree that the Antarctic was covered by a green color, but the thesis This is still not widely known " . It is known that Leppe, Chile's representative to work with the International Science Commission on Antarctic research, has spent his life searching for fossils and clues to the flora and fauna of ' Continent White '.

Is the Antarctic once covered by lush subtropical forests? Picture 1

Leppe said that "the forest began to appear in Antarctica about 298 million years ago during the Permian geological period, when the glaciers drifted and the global climate entered a warming phase ."

Evidence is that the Jurassic fossils show the existence of poplar, coniferous trees and this is also where the Cryolophosaurus dinosaurs have grown most strongly in the past. However, the brightest golden age of Antarctica is the Cretaceous period, starting from 145 to 66 million years ago.

Leppe said, "About 80 million years ago, walking in Antarctica was like walking in a tropical or subtropical forest, like what we could see in South, Central Chile or New Zealand. nowadays."

Besides, biologists said: "We know that some dinosaurs have migrated before the winter comes to survive, and then the plant flora already exists during that icy season at How Antarctica is, it is still a mystery, although trees receive 22 hours of light every day in the summer in Antarctica, but this does not mean that they have enough photosynthetic energy to live pulling. long through the winter ' - He said.

There is also a view that the green forest disappeared about 15 million years ago, leaving a harsh ice desert. And another miracle has just been discovered recently, showing that there are many species of wild grass and oatmeal flowers growing back in Antarctica mainly in melting glaciers due to global warming. Climate change, global warming, invasion of wild plants promising to bring Antarctica, a white continent back to a green continent as in the past.