NKRIKU, Jakarta – Climate change is not only a problem for humans, but animals must also adapt. Some “warm-blooded” animals change shape especially with larger beaks, legs and ears to better regulate their body temperature as the planet gets warmer.
Bird researcher from Deakin University, Australia, Sara Ryding, explains the changes in a review published Tuesday, September 7, 2021, in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. According to him, often when climate change is discussed in the mainstream media, people ask: “Can humans overcome this? Or what technology can solve this?”
“It is time we realized that animals too had to adapt to these changes. But this happens on a much shorter timescale than it does in most evolutionary times,” he said, as quoted by Phys, Tuesday, September 7, 2021.
Ryding explained that climate change is putting a lot of stress on animals, and while some species will adapt, others will not. He also noted that climate change is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that has occurred progressively, making it difficult to pinpoint just one cause of shape change.
“These changes have occurred over large geographic areas and among diverse species, so there is little in common apart from climate change,” he said.
Strong shape shifts have mainly been reported in birds. Several species of Australian parrots have shown an average of 4-10 percent increase in beak size since 1871. And this change is positively correlated with summer temperatures each year.
The North American dark-eyed junco, a small songbird, has a link between increased beak size and short-term temperature extremes in cold environments. There have also been reported changes in mammalian species.
And researchers have reported an increase in tail length in wood rats, an increase in tail and leg size in masked rats. However, Ryding said, the increase in those measures so far has been small enough—less than 10 percent—so the changes are unlikely to be immediately apparent.
“However, prominent changes such as ears are expected to increase. So maybe we’ll see a live-action Dumbo movie in the not too distant future,” Ryding said.
Next, Ryding will investigate deformity in Australian birds firsthand by scanning 3D museum bird specimens from the last 100 years. This will give his team a better understanding of which birds are changing their shape due to climate change and why.
Changing shape doesn’t mean that animals are dealing with climate change and everything is ‘fine’. This means they evolved to survive. “But we’re not sure what the other ecological consequences of this change will be, or indeed that all species are capable of changing and surviving.”
CELL PRESS | PHYS
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