Birds outpace climate change to avoid extinction
Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - 16:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
A new study has shed light on the potential of birds to survive in the face of climate change. In the analysis, based on more than fifty years' detailed study of a population of great tits near Oxford, UK, scientists found that for these small, short-lived birds, evolution can work fast enough for genetic adaptation to keep pace with a changing environment. However, even for such fast-evolving species, evolution on its own is not enough.