Antarctic Fossils Shows Earth Much Warmer in Recent Past

Thanks to a college student, scientists now know that in years past, the earth was a much warmer place than previously believed. Fossils collected from East Antarctica show that polar cap was once much hotter. At least, 14 million years ago.

The fossil, an ostracod, couldn’t survive in as cold of a climate as is present today. So this leads us to the next logical reason: the earth was much warmer back in the day. Tests show that the Arctic was at least thirty degrees warmer than it is today. Then suddenly 14 million years ago there was a major cool down and here we are.

Scientists haven’t yet determined what caused the major cooling period. Then again they also slacked while a college student found the new evidence in fossil form. That’s either one really smart kid or we have a bunch of really dumb and/or lazy scientists.

With global warming at the forefront of today’s news topics, maybe we should send all of our college students out into the field. No doubt they would unearth some of the world’s great mysteries. Where’s the ambition these days anyway? Where were the “professional” scientists when this kid got the fossils? Actually, where they were when the student was growing up is probably a better question.

I’m sure we all do the best we can, especially at work. But these stories (and many others like it) show just how complacent we get in certain situations when we’re there for a while. Then suddenly someone comes in and shows us up while we sit back and watch. I say good for the college student. I wonder if this means a scholarship.