JUNE 10,
2019
Researchers
have shown how millions of years of climate change affected the range and
habitat of modern birds, suggesting that many groups of tropical birds may be
relatively recent arrivals in their equatorial homes.
The
researchers, from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, applied climateand ecological modelling to
illustrate how the distribution of major bird groups is linked to climate
change over millions of years. However, while past climate change often
occurred slowly enough to allow species to adapt or shift habitats, current
rates of climate change may be too fast for many species, putting them at risk
of extinction. The results are reported in Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences.
"Palaeontologists
have documented long-term links between climate and the geographic
distributions of major bird groups, but the computer models needed to quantify
this link had not been applied to this question until now," said Dr. Daniel
Field from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences, the paper's co-lead
author.
For the
current study, the researchers looked at ten bird groups currently limited to
the tropics, predominantly in areas that were once part of the ancient
supercontinent of Gondwana (Africa, South America and Australasia). However,
early fossil representatives of each of these groups have been found on
northern continents, well outside their current ranges.
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