The North Pole used to have palm trees and alligators

Apart from Santa’s workshop and his army of elves, what else springs to mind when you think of the North Pole?

A polar bear? Frozen lakes? Blankets of snow?

Well, while this is the state of the North Pole now, scientists have discovered that this hasn’t always been the case.

They’ve discovered that around 55 million years ago the Arctic was more akin to Miami, with average balmy temperatures of around 23 degrees and even found that it was once home to alligators and palm trees.

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The researchers made the discovery after examining samples they extracted from more than 1,000 feet below the Arctic Ocean floor as part of the multinational Arctic Coring Expedition.

And their findings are now published in the journal Nature, CBS News reports.

They’ve said that it gives us a glimpse into what the region was like when it was heated by naturally produced greenhouse gases and give us some insight into what global warming could do to it in the future.

They also believe that it was the simple fern who may have managed to help cool the temperatures back down to what they’re known for – although this would have taken about a million years.

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“It's the first time we've looked at the Arctic, and man, it was a big surprise to us,” said Kathryn Moran, an oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island and the study’s co-author. “It's a new look to how the Earth can respond to these peaks in carbon dioxide.”

Yale geology professor Mark Pagani, who is also a study co-author, painted a picture of what the place may have looked like.

“Imagine a world where there are dense sequoia trees and cypress trees like in Florida in that ring the Arctic Ocean.”

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He said it would have seemed like a tropical paradise although the mosquitos would have likely been the size of our heads.

The study’s findings are proof that too much CO2 can cause global warming and its theory suggests that the fastest growing plant on Earth, a fern named Azolla, started sucking up the carbon dioxide to help cool the Arctic back down.

However, the limited data means they’re not sure if the 23 degrees temperature is a year-round average or that of summertime.

Gabriel Bowen, who is an atmospheric sciences professor at Purdue University, has praised the research and said it shows there are “tipping points” in the Earth’s climatic system “that can throw us to these conditions”.