Climate Change Changes Animal Shapes

Climate change that creates global warming has an impact on warm-blooded animals (homoiterm). These animals undergo changes in shape to maintain a constant internal temperature so that metabolism is maintained.
If the temperature is not maintained, you can experience heatstroke or overheating. This condition occurs when the body experiences a drastic increase in temperature to 40 degrees Celsius or even more. Usually occurs when the weather is very hot.
“In warm-blooded animals, some of the heat is lost through the radiation process, sweating which cools the body. Through evaporation it functions to maintain a constant body temperature. Examples of warm-blooded animals are birds and mammals,” said bird researcher and doctoral candidate from Deakin University, Australia, Sara Ryding, in writing in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution 7 September issue.
In homoiothermic animals, the temperature is stable due to the presence of temperature-regulating receptors in the brain. That is why, warm-blooded animals can carry out activities at different environmental temperatures because of their ability to regulate body temperature.
Homoiterm animals have normal temperature variations which are influenced by age, sex, environmental factors, and the length of day and night. In addition, the factor of food consumed, and the saturated factor of water digestion also have an effect.
Ryding said, in the face of global warming caused by climate change, warm-blooded animals do various ways. First move to a cooler area, such as closer to the poles or to higher ground. Both some change the timing of breeding and migration at cooler times.
The third way is to evolve by changing their body size to cool faster. In their latest study on several species, Ryding and his Deakin University colleague, Professor Matthew Symonds, suggest that animals are able to cope with climate change by changing the size of their ears, tails, beaks and other appendages.
“We found examples of animals increasing appendage size in parallel with climate change and associated temperature increases,” Ryding said.
Their research has identified several examples of shape-shifting animals including several species in Australia. Changes in shape are widespread, there are even some fundamental changes in form.
Changes in shape to get better cooling in the past was carried out by African elephants. These giant animals pump warm blood into their large ears, which then flap their ears to release heat.

Aturan Allen
Similar to elephants, birds also do something similar by using their beaks. When the weather is scorching hot, the king parrot oozes blood into its beak. This is indicated by a higher temperature warm than other body parts.
In the 1870s, American zoologist Joel Allen noted that in colder climates, warm-blooded animals, also known as endotherms, tended to have smaller appendages. Whereas those in warmer climates tend to have larger appendages.
This pattern is known as the “Allen rule”. Several studies in birds as well as mammals support this rule, helping to make predictions about how animals will evolve as the climate warms.
“Our research set out to find examples of changes in animal shape over the last century, consistent with climate warming and Allen’s rule,” explains Symonds.
This includes several species of Australian parrots. Studies show the beak size of the Ganga cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum) and the red-backed parrot (Psephotus haematonotus) have increased between 4 percent and 10 percent since 1871.
Not only in birds, the size of the appendages of mammals also increases. For example, in the masked shrew (Sorex cinereus) whose tail and leg length has increased significantly since 1950. Meanwhile, in the large leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros armiger), wing size increased by 1.64 percent over the same period.
“Examples show shape change is taking place in different types of appendages and in different animals, in many parts of the world. But more research is needed to determine which animal species are most affected,” Ryding said. hi/I-1