Dinosaurs and the climate

Bob Spicer et al, from Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, who has examined fern leaves from Central Siberia, says that this today rather unfriendly place 65 million years ago was a lot like modern-day Florida, with lush ferns and lots of rain.

Climate models for the same area had indicated temperatures around zero degrees Celsius (32° F). But Bob Spencer and his colleagues doubt model temperatures match reality. In the age of dinos the world was so different that the models we use for today’s atmosphere cannot mimic it. Go figure. Who said computer models are more reliable than observations?

Read the whole story in New Scientist. Or ask a dinosaur.