The model is the first to comprehensively map the planet's oceans from the Cretaceous period, when Gondwana - the supercontinent that later broke up into Australia, Antarctica, South America and Africa - was intact. The Indian and Atlantic oceans were formed in this period.

"To give an idea of the time scale that our ocean basin model covers, it starts at the time when dinosaurs were at their most diverse, mammals were small and a minor component of animal life on Earth, and flowering plants were just spreading over the Earth," says Associate Professor Müller.

"If we project our model 80 million years into the future, we can predict that the sea level will continue falling by about 120 metres in the long run, through mid-ocean ridge destruction and the continuing ageing and deepening of the ocean basins," says Associate Professor Müller.

For the majority of Earth's recorded geological history, there were no inland ice sheets and it is quite likely that 80 million years into the future the world will be ice free again. The future looks likely to have a hothouse climate like in the Cretaceous 80 million years ago, when polar mean temperatures were over 14 degrees higher than today, compared to our currently frozen poles.