Crocodiles in the Arctic
Ellesmere Island, at 78 degrees north, supports turtles, alligator relatives and swamp cypress.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 3 million years
- Known to
- ± 1 million years
- Era
- Eocene, Cenozoic
Eocene sediments on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian High Arctic preserve a floodplain fauna including champsosaurs, alligator relatives, turtles, tapir-like mammals and early primates, in forests of dawn redwood and swamp cypress. The site was already inside the Arctic Circle, so these animals endured months of continuous winter darkness — though not months of hard freezing. It is the most vivid single demonstration of how differently a high-carbon-dioxide world distributes its heat: the poles warm far more than the tropics.