Paleoart of the giant sea snake Palaeophis, who has swam up to the Paleocene Arctic to bask in the summer sun. Also notable is the presence of a dense plant carpeting the sea surface: Azolla. They capture carbon dioxide from the air, and as they die, sink to the seafloor, locking it away from the atmosphere. It is these plants that will send the planet spiralling into a cooling climate, culminating in the famous ice ages. Lush forests will slowly but surely be replaced by hardier fare, and then by sprawling glaciers. The arctic will freeze over, and the area will be rendered unrecognizable until a strange species of hairless apes dig up a plethora of shark's teeth in the Margaret Formation millions of years later.
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