Palm Sunday

 with Madison Pettis:

Morning Ag Clips, Palm Trees Once Thrived in Subarctic Canada, but it's been a while.

A new study by Connecticut College provides strong evidence that palm trees once thrived in subarctic Canada, reshaping scientific understanding of past Arctic climates.

Conn Professor Peter Siver’s research, published in the journal Annals of Botany, confirms that during the late early Eocene—approximately 48 million years ago—this region maintained warm temperatures year-round, even during months of winter darkness. The work was done in collaboration with colleagues from Canada and Poland.

Siver’s team identified fossilized phytoliths—microscopic silica structures formed in plant tissues—from palm trees in ancient lakebed sediments extracted from the Giraffe kimberlite pipe locality in Canada’s Northwest Territories. These fossils, alongside preserved remains of warm-water aquatic organisms, indicate a climate far warmer than previously thought, challenging assumptions about when and where ice first formed in the Northern Hemisphere.

Linked at the Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links.