German researchers found amber in Antarctica for the first time, proving it had trees 90 million years ago. In 2017, the Alfred Wegener Institute scientists found it from a depth of 946 meters

Scientists recently discovered amber fragments that suggest the snow-covered continent of Antarctica could have once been a lush jungle.

The argument that Antarctica holds more than just piles of snow and ice is not particularly new, but thanks to the latest scientific discovery, it gains a tangible dimension. This 90-million-year-old finding could definitively change all our knowledge about Antarctica's history.

Along with fossils of roots, pollen, and spores, the amber provides some of the best evidence yet that a mid-Cretaceous, swampy rainforest existed near the South Pole, and that this prehistoric environment was " dominated by conifers ", similar to forests in New Zealand and Patagonia today.

Amber discovered in the southernmost region provides fresh insights into Cretaceous forests near the South Pole. Approximately 90 million years ago, Antarctica's climate was favorable for resin-producing trees.

The amber, excavated from Pine Island Bay in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, provides a unique snapshot of life in prehistoric Antarctica.

Until now, Antarctica was the only continent on Earth without any known amber fossils. But sediment cores taken from below the seafloor have revealed a tiny piece of fossilized resin holding fragments of an ancient rainforest that covered the South Pole during the Cretaceous period.

The discovery of fossilised plant 'blood' - once prized as a gemstone - shows what lived on the continent before it was all covered in ice.