A concerted effort to get the children to go back to sleep:
The first detailed analysis of an extraordinary climatic and biological record from the seabed near the North Pole shows that 55 million years ago the Arctic Ocean was much warmer than scientists imagined - a Floridian year-round average of 74 degrees.AndrewC. Revkin/NYTimes/IHT 01.Jun.06
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The Arctic was once a balmy subtropical paradise with palm trees, alligators and an average temperature of 74F, scientists revealed yesterday.StephenMcGinty/Scotsman 01.Jun.06
Core samples dug from deep beneath the Arctic Ocean floor have shown that an area near the North Pole was much warmer 55 million years ago than first thought.
The research has also given scientists the idea that a simple fern may have helped prevent the Earth from turning into a blazing hothouse and allowed it to develop into the more habitable environment found on most of the planet today.