Antarctica's modern-day icy climate betrays its lush, forested past, National Geographic reported Wednesday.
An expedition between November 2016 and January 2017 uncovered 13 fossil fragments from trees that thrived over 260 million years ago — before mass extinction — leading scientists to believe that at one point, Antarctica was actually covered in green. The period in question likely happened between 400 million and 14 million years ago, scientists estimate.
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