Contact: Gertie Skaarup
skaarup@nbi.dk
453-532-5320
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

Usage Restrictions: Drawing of reconstruction of ancient Greenland by Bent Jærdig Knudsen

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