Climate change puts animals that live in the polar regions and those that live in restricted environments in particular at risk of extinction.
This is indicated by the study led by the University of Oxford and published in the journal Science, which tried to identify the most vulnerable species by analyzing over 290,000 fossils of marine invertebrates such as sea urchins, snails and molluscs that lived in the last 485 million years.
The findings could help identify the animals most at risk and develop strategies to protect them.
Climate changes that occurred during the Earth's past history were often responsible for the disappearance of many species, but until now it was not clear what factors allowed animals to survive or succumb.
To answer this question, researchers led by Cooper Malanoski focused on fossils of marine invertebrates which, given their abundance, allow us to precisely identify when and why a species becomes extinct.
The results indicate that, among the animals most likely to disappear, there are those exposed to the most intense climate changes, with significant variations in temperature, and those living in extreme climatic conditions, such as the polar regions.
But the most important factor for the risk of extinction turned out to be the size of the geographical area: species that have larger environments at their disposal are able to get by more easily.
“Evidence from the geological past suggests that global biodiversity faces a worrying future, given projected climate change estimates,” comments Erin Saupe, co-author of the study: “If large enough, they could push the world towards a sixth mass extinction”.
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