Arctic region was once a tropical paradise

SCIENTISTS have found what might have been the ideal ancient hotspot with a 23c average temperature, alligator ancestors and palm trees. It’s smack in the middle of the Arctic.

Core samples dug up from beneath the Arctic Ocean floor show that 55 million years ago an area near the North Pole was practically a subtropical paradise.

The scientists say their findings are a glimpse backward into a much warmer-than-thought polar region heated by run-amok greenhouse gases that came about naturally.

However, sceptics of man-made causes of global warming have nothing to rejoice over. The researchers say their studies, appearing in today’s issue of Nature, also offer a peek at just how bad conditions can get. “It probably was (a tropical paradise) but the mosquitoes were probably the size of your head,” said the study’s co-author, geology professor Mark Pagani.