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Fifty million eld ago , lush rainforests blanketed modern - day Antarctica , Australia , New Zealand and the confidential information of South America . Now , researchers have discovered raw dodo that reveal which plant metal money populated these wood and how they adapted to life near the South Pole .
Recent excavations in westerly Tasmania uncovered a issue of plant fossils , including the remains of two specie of conifer antecedently unknown to skill that were part of a 53 million - year - older " frigid wood . "
Plant fossils discovered near Macquarie Harbor in western Tasmania.
The forest thrived during the Eocene epoch ( 56 million to 33.9 million years ago ) , when global surface temperatures averaged80 degrees Fahrenheit ( 27 degrees Celsius)and the southerly continents formed one giant landmass around the South Pole , agree to a subject field published Aug. 27 in theAmerican Journal of Botany .
" This breakthrough offers rare insights into a time when global temperatures were much high than today , " study authorMiriam Slodownik , a paleobotanist and late doctoral graduate from the University of Adelaide in Australia , enounce in astatement . " Tasmania was much closer to the South Pole , but the tender global clime allowed plush forests to expand in these regions . "
world-wide temperature spiked during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum ( 53 million to 49 million geezerhood ago ) , a period predating the detachment of Australia from Antarctica between 45 million and 35 million years ago . Modern fossils unearthed near Tasmania ’s Macquarie Harbor intimate tropic plants from the gelid forest traveled north as the continent drifted apart , seed rain forest that still exist today .
Plant fossils discovered near Macquarie Harbor in western Tasmania.
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Researchers dig up more than 400 plant fossil and analyzed them in the lab using advanced microscope and ultraviolet photography . These techniques discover well - continue leaves and cellular structures that facilitate the team discover 12 different plant life species . Most of these were ancestor of flora still ascertain today in Australia , New Zealand and South America , agree to the statement . These three landmasses stayed joined together after the detachment of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana and remained sountil at least 49 million years ago .
Of the 12 species , at least nine were conifers , according to the study . " The most prominent fossil are congenator of the Kauri [ Agathis ] , Bunja [ Araucaria bidwillii ] and Wollemi [ Wollemia nobilis ] true pine that give clues about the organic evolution of these iconic Australian tree diagram , " Slodownik said .
The investigator , in quislingism with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre , also name ferns , a cycad and two newfound , nonextant tree species , which they namedPodocarpus paralungatikensisandAraucaria timkarikensis . " Paralungatik " is the original name of Macquarie Harbor and " Timkarik " that of the fence area in the Aboriginal language of Tasmania , concord to the statement .
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The analyses bring out that the fossilized plant adapt to the polar surroundings , which would have experienced the same utmost seasonal light government 53 million years ago as it does today . The plants evolved large parting to maximize light absorption in the summer and deciduousness to preserve resourcefulness in low - swooning weather during the winter , according to the study .
" The analyses showed how these plant conform and thrived across the Southern Hemisphere in warm , sparkler - free conditions , even with the extreme seasonal changes near the polar circle , " Slodownik say .
But the new fossils reveal details of even wide changes . " These plant state the taradiddle of big changes in mood and the tilt architectonic plate over millions of years , " Soldownik said .
