Reconstruction of Ancient Greenland (IMAGE)

University of Copenhagen

Reconstruction of Ancient Greenland

Caption

New Danish research shows that large parts of Greenland were covered by forest. This was discovered by analysing fossil DNA which had been preserved under the kilometre-thick icecap. The DNA-traces are likely close to 450,000 years old, and that means that Greenland was also covered in a large ice sheet 125,000 years ago during the earth's last warm period, Eem. This was while the climate was 5 degrees warmer than the interglacial period we currently live in.

Credit

Drawing of reconstruction of ancient Greenland by Bent Jærdig Knudsen

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Drawing of reconstruction of ancient Greenland by Bent Jærdig Knudsen

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