280 million years ago Antarctica was quite green

[Kasia]

A new discovery in Antarctica, which shows some extraordinary capacity of polar trees

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/antarctica-fossil-forests-280-million-year-old-trees-erik-gulbranson-john-isbell-university-of-a8158441.html

[Tidgy's Dad]

I wonder exactly when it got too cold and these incredible forests finally failed. 

[siteseer]

On 1/15/2018 at 12:04 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

I wonder exactly when it got too cold and these incredible forests finally failed. 

 

Antarctica was still well-forested going into the Eocene (55 million years ago) but ocean currents were changing by the Mid-late Eocene as a result of shifting continents.  Warm water wasn't circulating as it had been while cold water started circulating more than it had been.  A cold water current started circulating around Antarctica once it fully separated from South America.  Glaciers developed and melted in parts of Antarctica in the Late Eocene but glaciers really began dominating the continent during the Oligocene.  It's more complex than that and there are still unknowns but that's a partial explanation you can look into.