Does climate change affect the body shape and size of animals? Yes. Be it rise in temperature or higher emission of carbon dioxide, both can be cited as effects of global warming that adversely affect the body size of mammals, reveals a recent study.
The study was done by Philip Gingerich and colleagues from the University of Michigan. According to the researchers, there is enough evidence where animals have been found to decrease in size with rise in temperature and vice-versa. The researchers also suspect that in the coming years global warming might lead to similar results, reports care2.com.
The researchers have examined fossils of animals from 55 million years ago. The temperatures went up by 14 times during a span of 160,000 years. The fossils revealed shrunken animals compared to their ancestors. Once the temperature came down, the animals grew back to their previous sizes, the fossils reveal.
Similar happenings were noticed some two million years later when the global temperature was on a higher note once again. The two consecutive results, according to the researchers, definitely prove a connection between the animal size and rise/ fall in temperature.
"The fact that it happened twice significantly increases our confidence that we're seeing cause and effect, that one interesting response to global warming in the past was a substantial decrease in body size in mammalian species," said Philip Gingerich, the lead researcher of the study and a professor at Michigan University.
The present study is backed by an earlier study conducted by Gingerich seven years ago, which collected enough evidence to prove global warming affects natural resources. The study stated that the rise in temperature or hyperthermal results in lesser yield of plant nutrients which in turn affected the animals, which adapted by shrinking in size.
"Interestingly, the extent of mammalian dwarfism may be related to the magnitude of the hyperthermal event," said Abigail D'Ambrosia, co author of the study, reports natureworldnews.
Earlier studies have revealed higher percentage of carbon dioxide affects body shape in mammals. Be it rise in temperature or carbon dioxide in air , both are well known effects of global warming, which heavily impact the body size of mammals.
