Antarctic forest before the great extinction 252 million years ago

Traces of prehistoric Antarctic forests can help scientists understand more about the Permian extinction event - Triassic.

Scientists found evidence of the forest that existed about 260 million years ago by a fossil plant under the ice in the Transantarctic, Antarctic, Newsweek Mountains yesterday reported.

The forest could exist before it occurred 252 million years ago, erasing 95% of living creatures on Earth. According to scientists, the cause of this most serious extinction event is the long and massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia, causing global temperatures to rise. About 20 million years later, the first dinosaurs began to appear.

Transantarctic Mountains in Antarctica.(Photo: Newsweek).

To learn more about the great extinction, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee explored a mountain range in Antarctica, searching for plants from the continent that were warmer and covered by trees.

At the end of the Permian, about 250 million years ago, Antarctica was part of. This supercontinent also includes Africa, Australia, India and South America. At that time, this place was much warmer and more humid, plants like moss and ferns grew everywhere.

The team looked for these plants to better understand the climate change process at the time. Understanding global temperature changes allows scientists to reconstruct a more detailed picture of the cause of such massive extinction.

During the expedition, the team discovered 13 pieces of fossil trees. Test results show that they are more than 260 million years old."The forest revealed some details of the extinct pre-existence and could help us understand the cause of this event," said geologist Erik Gulbranson, an expedition member.

Prehistoric forests will be less diverse than existing forests , Gulbranson said. "This group of plants must be able to survive and grow in many different environments , " he said. Even with a warm climate like today, the forest will experience many months of darkness due to the latitude of Antarctica. However, the forest was unable to survive the great extinction event.

Gondwana supercontinent on Earth.(Photos: Pinterest).

Gulbranson plans to return to the region by the end of November and here until January 2018. During that time, he will study plant numbers more closely to see how they react to sudden changes in the environment.

"Geological data show the early, middle and end of climate change events. As we study further, we can understand more about how greenhouse gases and climate change affect how to live on Earth , " Gulbranson concluded.