In the first study of its kind, researchers have discovered that events from 20,000 years ago or more are still impacting the diversity and distribution of mammal species worldwide.
In the first study of its kind, researchers have discovered that events from 20,000 years ago or more are still impacting the diversity and distribution of mammal species worldwide.
“Our study shows that mammal biodiversity in the tropics and subtropics today is still being shaped by ancient human events and climate changes,” said study lead author John Rowan of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “In some cases, we found that ancient climate or human events were more important than their present-day counterparts in explaining present patterns of biodiversity.”
The research is available online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors spent more than five years compiling and analyzing data about the diets, body sizes and variety of species in 515 mammal communities — each with multiple species — in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa and Asia. Separate statistical analyses were conducted for each community to determine how well recent and ancient events — both climatic and human — could account for present-day diets, body sizes and species variation.
Study co-author Lydia Beaudrot of Rice University said the study findings are especially important given the increasing questions ecologists face about how anthropogenic climate change and other human impacts will affect biodiversity this century.
Read more at Rice University
Image: Lydia Beaudrot is an assistant professor of biosciences at Rice University. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
