| archmage | Date: Thursday, 10-February-2011, 4:12 PM | Message # 1 |
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-- dragon lord--
Group: lords
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| By Howard Falcon-Lang Royal Holloway, London
Professor Jane Francis of the University of Leeds is an intrepid explorer who has followed in Scott's footsteps. She has spent 10 field seasons in Antarctica collecting fossil plants and received the Polar Medal from the Queen in 2002.
"I still find the idea that Antarctica was once forested absolutely mind-boggling", she told the BBC.
"We take it for granted that Antarctica has always been a frozen wilderness, but the ice caps only appeared relatively recently in geological history."
One of her most amazing fossil discoveries to date was made in the Transantarctic Mountains, not far from where Scott made his own finds.
She recalled: "We were high up on glaciated peaks when we found a sedimentary layer packed full of fragile leaves and twigs."
Full article/source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12378934
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