Skip to content(if available)orjump to list(if available)

Ancient termite poo reveals 120M-year-old secrets of Australia's forests

Ancient termite poo reveals 120M-year-old secrets of Australia's forests

5 comments

·June 18, 2025
Visit

yalogin

This is completely unexpected. It says back then nighttime lasted for 3 months and daytime for another three months. How is this possible? Did the orientation of the earth relative to the sun change over time? If so it’s going to flip over again, wonder what the time estimates for that are

magneticnorth

Longyearban, the capital of Svalbard, has 4 months of night and 4 months of day.

I believe Earth has always had some axial tilt, so this kind of effect would always have happened near the poles. According the article, "During the Early Cretaceous, southeastern Australia was some of the closest land to the South Pole."

null

[deleted]

lovich

Australia was at a different place on the globe back then, much closer to the South Pole, which experiences extreme day/night cycles because of geometry

I kinda recall reading that the planet was warmer back then so it’s not crazy to think life evolved there and dealt with the cycles.

Razengan

Wonder what secrets my poo will reveal 120 million years in the future