FLICKR, NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTEROne way for species to beat climate change is to evolve to thrive at new temperatures. But a study published last month (June 26) in the journal Ecology Letters argues that vertebrates will need to evolve at rates that are “largely unprecedented” to match the pace at which today’s temperatures are changing.
The researchers calculated past rates of evolution in response to temperature by looking at the evolutionary histories of more than 500 currently living species, including various reptiles, birds, amphibians, and mammals.
They analyzed pairs of closely related species and noted the current average temperatures in their habitats, as well as the historical temperatures predicted for the habitat of their common ancestor. They then calculated the rate at which the species evolved as the temperatures of their habitats changed.
"We found that, on average, species usually adapt to different climatic conditions at a rate of only by about 1 degree Celsius per million years," John Wiens, an author of the paper and an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona, said in a press ...
