[Right Wing Professor]

Someone mentioned trees growing at the poles (laugh).

Laugh all you want. The high-latitude paleobotanical record also provides convincing evidence of polar warmth during the Cretaceous. The occurrence of deciduous trees as far north as 82ºN during the middle Cretaceous indicates that permafrost was absent, and the abrupt cessation of cell growth in their tree rings [HN7] reveals that winter darkness was the seasonal growth-limiting factor rather than cold temperatures (4). A more quantitative measure of terrestrial climate stems from the temperature-controlled size and shape relationships among modern leaf assemblages. This "leaf physiognomic" approach [HN8] to paleotemperature reconstruction has been applied mostly to latest Cretaceous and Tertiary floras with internally and externally consistent results. Its reliability is less certain, however, when used for mid-Cretaceous plant assemblages, because this was a time of evolutionary innovation and radiation among the angiosperms. Using the leaf physiognomy method, Herman and Spicer (5) estimate that the mean temperature of the warmest summer month in the Arctic during the Turonian and Coniacian ranged between 18º and 20ºC, whereas the coldest winter month ranged from -4º to 0ºC during the Turonian and 0º to 4ºC during the Coniacian (see figure below). Mean annual temperatures estimated from the Alaskan North Slope with this method yield similarly mild temperatures.

[JustDoItAlways]

Antarctica was not over the South Pole in the Cretaceous period so it is not surprising to find fossil trees there. Was is surprising is the climate scientists who know nothing about continental drift and plate tectonics.

http://www.scotese.com/cretaceo.htm

http://www.scotese.com/jurassic.htm