Amber Fossils Suggest France Once a Jungle

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Amber Fossils Reveal Ancient France Was A Jungle

ScienceDaily (Jan. 8, 2008) — Research on a treasure trove of amber has yielded evidence that France once was covered by a dense tropical rainforest with trees similar to those found in the modern-day Amazon. The 55-million-year-old pieces of amber was discovered in the Oise River area in northern France.

In the new study, Akino Jossang and colleagues used laboratory instruments to analyze the fossilized tree sap in an effort to link specific samples of amber to specific kinds of trees. The amber remained intact over the ages, while the trees from which it oozed disappeared. Efforts to make such connections have been difficult because amber from different sites tended to have very similar chemical compositions.

The report describes discovery of a new organic compound in amber called "quesnoin," whose precursor exists only in sap produced by a tree currently growing only in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

Researchers say that amber probably seeped out of a similar tree growing in a tropical forest that covered France millions of years ago before Earth's continents drifted into their current positions.

"The region corresponding to modern France could have been found in a geographically critical marshy zone belonging to Africa and a tropical zone 55 million years ago extending through North Africa to the Amazon," the report states.

The study "Quesnoin, a Novel Pentacyclic ent-Diterpene from 55 Million Year Old Oise Amber" is scheduled for the Jan. 4 issue of ACS' Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Adapted from materials provided by American Chemical Society.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 091035.htm

Cannot understand why this would be noteworthy enough for scientists to even comment on when its allready reported that the polar ice caps cover the remains of tropical rain forest.
Dont they communicate with each other?

Sociologically, it's interesting to observe that France is once again reverting to the law of the jungle.

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/i ... 9720080101

This looks like mindless violence, but at times you do have to admire the French the way they get organised and stand up to thier governmnet.

The rest of us westerners would go no further than muttering amongst ourselves even if our leaders demanded we sacrifice our firstborn in the fire to Molech.

And then, come elction day, we would vote them into power again!

The way I read it is that the significance of the research is not in that the area was covered by a tropical rainforest, but in that analysis of the amber shows similarities with sap produced by trees in Brazil. I think the title of the article is misleading.

I guess this is the 2nd global warming than

So the Earth was once warmer, tropical trees grew, like the trees that still grow in the tropics,

I can see reasons for giving Degrees in Science, and I can see reasons for taking them away.

Science Experts Study Stuff!