Prehistoric creatures flocked to different latitudes to survive climate change – the same is taking place todayhttps://theconversation.com/prehistoric-creatures-flocked-to-different-latitudes-to-survive-climate-change-the-same-is-taking-place-today-163309Studies looking at the evolution of biodiversity by latitude have shown that during some intervals in Earth’s history, species biodiversity was actually highest at latitudes far from the equator.
Understanding why latitudinal biodiversity has shifted over hundreds of millions of years, often linked to mass extinction events, is critical in today’s world, where we’re facing climate change, habitat loss and decreasing biodiversity worldwide. Looking back in geological time reveals an alarming picture of what we’re set to lose if we fail to address increasing global temperatures.
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Modern biodiversity peaks in low-latitude equatorial regions, such as in the tropical rainforests of the Amazon and central Africa. This pattern is more likely to be recorded during “icehouse” times, when ice sheets are present in both poles simultaneously – like today.
During warmer intervals, called “hothouse” or “greenhouse” Earth states, bimodal peaks have been recorded. This means there were two bands where biodiversity was highest, and these wrapped around the Earth at mid-latitudes, or regions sitting between 25° and 65° north and south of the equator.
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insights into past mass extinction events are critical for understanding how Earth’s current patchwork of biodiverse regions could change. As global temperatures continue to rise, some studies have predicted that species will disperse towards the poles from equatorial regions – but if the pace of change is too rapid, they risk going extinct.
Others suggest that global warming might lead to the climate becoming more similar across different latitudes, potentially producing a peak in biodiversity at mid-latitudes. There’s already evidence that marine latitudinal biodiversity has become increasingly bimodal over the last 50 years.
With a possible “sixth mass extinction” looming, or even already taking hold, a long-term perspective will be critical for understanding how to sustain Earth’s biodiversity into the future.