Climate change is an important predictor of extinction risk on macroevolutionary timescales. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38452067/)

These scientists studied how climate change has affected marine animals like sea creatures over a very long time, 485 million years to be exact. They wanted to understand why some animals went extinct while others survived.

To do this, the scientists looked at two things: the natural traits of the animals and how much the climate changed over time. They found that a combination of the animals' own characteristics and how much the climate changed played a big role in determining if they went extinct or not.

Their results showed that even animals that were thought to be good at surviving extinction could still disappear if the climate changed a lot. This study helps us understand how climate change can affect different animals and why some may be more at risk of disappearing.

Malanoski CM., Farnsworth A., Lunt DJ., Valdes PJ., Saupe EE. Climate change is an important predictor of extinction risk on macroevolutionary timescales. Science. 2024 Mar 8;383(6687):1130-1134. doi: 10.1126/science.adj5763. Epub 2024 Mar 7.