New study reveals insight into which animals are most vulnerable to extinction due to climate change

The evidence from the geological past suggests that global biodiversity faces a harrowing future, given projected climate change estimates. However, if the localized climate change is large enough, it could lead to significant extinction globally, potentially pushing us closer to a sixth mass extinction. But, to date, it has not been clear what factors cause species to be more or less resilient to such change, and how the magnitude of climate change affects extinction risk. This trait information was integrated with climate simulation data to develop a model to understand which factors were most important in determining the risk of extinction during climate change. This should act as a stark warning to humanity as we recklessly continue to cause climate change ourselves through burning fossil fuels.’The study ‘Climate change is an important predictor of extinction risk on macroevolutionary timescales’ has been published in Science.