Some species may be flexible enough to handle the rapidly changing conditions. But many will be unable to slither away fast enough to survive. And the same is likely true for other kinds of creatures, including mammals and other reptiles.
"I'm not sure how species will be able to follow the climate so quickly," said Michelle Lawing, a paleobiologist at Indiana University in Bloomington. "In some cases, it might be better for conservationists to move them or create managed corridors where they could be assisted to better, more suitable habitats."
"Even when we make a big effort, the world will still look very different," Lawing added. "We're going to have different combinations of species in different places that we've never seen before."
To predict where animals might be able to live in the coming decades, plenty of studies have taken into account the physical traits of various species and how those traits might limit their future ranges.
To add more context to these kinds of projections, Lawing and colleague David Polly looked to the past to see how rattlesnakes have adapted to previous climate shifts. They chose to study rattlesnakes because these reptiles have lived and moved throughout North America for a long time. Read the full report here.
Source: by Emily Sohn, Discovery News.
