From: "Winnie Reuning" <answer5@passport.ivv.nasa.gov>
Subject: Re: Were the poles, in history, ever warm?
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 13:39:02 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: onair@passport.ivv.nasa.gov <onair@passport.ivv.nasa.gov>
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 1998 12:16 PM
Subject: Were the poles, in history, ever warm?


>James B. asks this Question:
>
>Were the poles, in history, ever warm?
>
>
>Answer:
>From geological evidence, scientists know that both poles have undergone
many changes in climate.  For instance, in Antarctica paleontologists have
found evidence that several different types of dinosaurs lived in regions of
the continent that are now covered with ice.  For the dinosaurs, ancient
birds, other smaller reptiles, and mammals to survive in these regions,
temperatures would have to have been much warmer than they are today.
Another example of the changes that this area has undergone is shown in
evidence that 80 million years ago there was a lush forest in some of the
coastal regions.  Some of these climate changes occurred when the antarctic
continent moved away from the South American, African, and Australian
continents; others were caused as ice sheets that now cover continent
fromed.>
>