Secrets of Antarctica's Fossilised Forests

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12378934

It may be hard to believe, but Antarctica was once covered in towering forests.

One hundred million years ago, the Earth was in the grip of an extreme Greenhouse Effect. The polar ice caps had all but melted; in the south, rainforests inhabited by dinosaurs existed in their place. These Antarctic ecosystems were adapted to the long months of winter darkness that occur at the poles, and were truly bizarre. But if global warming continues unabated, could these ancient forests be a taste of things to come?

One of the first people to uncover evidence for a once greener Antarctic was none other than the explorer, Robert Falcon Scott.

Toiling back from the South Pole in 1912, he stumbled over fossil plants on the Beardmore Glacier at 82 degrees south. The extra weight of these specimens may have been a factor in his untimely demise.

Yet his fossil discoveries also opened up a whole new window on Antarctica's sub-tropical past.