In 2017, scientists from Germany and the UK took sediment cores from the Antarctic seafloor at depths of about 30 meters near the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers. The cores contained well-preserved samples of forest soil, pollen, spores, and even root systems, dating back 90 million years to the mid-Cretaceous period. These findings suggest that Antarctica was once a swampy, temperate rainforest, with a climate much warmer than today.
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