Antarctica was a temperate rainforest 90 million years ago fossils found under ice

Beneath stable ice, a lost forest rewrites climate history

New fossils buried under Antarctica’s ice have revealed the continent was once a swampy temperate rainforest around 90 million years ago. Researchers estimate a warm, moist climate with average temperatures near 12°C—far from today’s icy conditions. The discovery reshapes Earth’s ancient climate timeline and underscores how greenhouse gases can dramatically transform polar regions.