I remember a story a few years ago that said that the last Mammoths survived on Wrangel Island off the Siberian coast.
In order to do this they had downsized somewhat under the ecological pressure of global warming, and a restricted food supply. Until their eventual extinction about 2,000 BC, which was some 6,000 years after the rest of the mammoths of the mainland had died off. Humans probably accounted for their final demise.
Now scientists from Southampton University are predicting that the larger mammals on Earth will be wiped out from their native habitats by the next century, and the remainder will become smaller, as they try to survive. Small rodents and birds are likely to have the best success, while other larger species such as black rhinos and tawny eagles, are likely to become extinct.
The exact amount of body downsizing is predicted to be as much as 25 per cent, which when you consider that the average downsizing in the last 130,000 years has been just 14 per cent, is a very dramatic change. The scientists studied the body mass, litter sizes, habitat, diet and lifespan of 15,484 species of birds and animals.
The cause of this? Humans of course, as we cause global warming, deforestation, hunt, urbanise, and pollute the environment on a scale unprecedented in the planets history .... mass extinction events have always been natural events, not caused by one species ... up until now.
The most likely survivors will be small, fast-lived, highly fertile creatures, that can survive on insects, and which can thrive in a variety of habitats .... the rest are probably going to be extinct in the wild.
The world we are going to pass on to the future is going to be a very much poorer one .... we reap what we sow.
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| Mammoths Downsized In Order To Try And Survive .... |
In order to do this they had downsized somewhat under the ecological pressure of global warming, and a restricted food supply. Until their eventual extinction about 2,000 BC, which was some 6,000 years after the rest of the mammoths of the mainland had died off. Humans probably accounted for their final demise.
Now scientists from Southampton University are predicting that the larger mammals on Earth will be wiped out from their native habitats by the next century, and the remainder will become smaller, as they try to survive. Small rodents and birds are likely to have the best success, while other larger species such as black rhinos and tawny eagles, are likely to become extinct.
The exact amount of body downsizing is predicted to be as much as 25 per cent, which when you consider that the average downsizing in the last 130,000 years has been just 14 per cent, is a very dramatic change. The scientists studied the body mass, litter sizes, habitat, diet and lifespan of 15,484 species of birds and animals.
The cause of this? Humans of course, as we cause global warming, deforestation, hunt, urbanise, and pollute the environment on a scale unprecedented in the planets history .... mass extinction events have always been natural events, not caused by one species ... up until now.
The most likely survivors will be small, fast-lived, highly fertile creatures, that can survive on insects, and which can thrive in a variety of habitats .... the rest are probably going to be extinct in the wild.
The world we are going to pass on to the future is going to be a very much poorer one .... we reap what we sow.
Sadly an accurate assessment.
ReplyDeleteYep. Thanks for the comment.
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