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Can't keep up with global warming! The penguins' survival became precarious

author:Encyclopedia

Penguins are popular, but the latest research suggests that penguins are the slowest-evolving birds.

Can't keep up with global warming! The penguins' survival became precarious

An international team of scientists, including the Bruce Museum in the United States and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, used genomic and fossil data to explore the evolutionary history of penguins over the past 60 million years.

As a result, it turns out that the rate of evolution of penguins slows down significantly over time.

This means that modern penguins have a harder time adapting to climate change than ancient penguins.

The acceleration of climate change in recent years is probably the biggest pressure penguins are facing.

Can't keep up with global warming! The penguins' survival became precarious

How did penguins evolve?

The oldest penguin ancestor, Kupoupou stilwelli, lived 60 million years ago, shortly after the extinction of the dinosaurs.

By this time, they had lost the ability to fly and evolved a body shape that was conducive to swimming and diving.

But the last common ancestor that led to modern penguins appeared much later.

Previous studies have shown that their common ancestor existed about 24 million years ago, but these findings have left penguins far behind in evolution.

Can't keep up with global warming! The penguins' survival became precarious

After comparing genetic samples and fossil data from extant species, the researchers found that the common ancestor of modern penguins appeared about 14 million years ago.

During this period, known as the Miocene climate transition, large amounts of carbon dioxide were trapped in the deep ocean, causing global temperatures to drop by as much as 17 degrees Celsius.

This may have put evolutionary pressure on penguin ancestors to adapt quickly to cold environments.

By this time, penguins had expanded from what is now New Zealand to South America and Antarctica

During the Miocene climate transition era, penguins have spread to Australia and Africa as ice sheets have expanded and new ocean currents have formed.

However, genomic and fossil data show that the evolution of penguins entered a long plateau period here.

There has been no new evolution for about 10 million years, and the 18 penguin species we see today have emerged in the last 3 million years.

Can't keep up with global warming! The penguins' survival became precarious

Regarding this rapid speciation, the team said, "The pace of evolution has temporarily accelerated due to sudden climate change before or after the last ice age (about 70,000 to 10,000 years ago)." But after that, the pace of evolution suddenly stopped, and it has reached the present.

An overview of the evolution of the penguin system, which lasted about 60 million years, suggests that the rate of evolution slowed down significantly as we approached modern times.

Lead researcher Daniel Kesepka said: "The reason penguins evolve so slowly may have something to do with their body size

Historically, penguins appear to have adapted quickly to sudden climate change, but the slowdown in evolution to modern times means they may not be able to keep up with recent climate change.

So, are penguins really in a desperate situation now?

Will 70% of emperor penguins disappear by 2050?

Antarctica is currently undergoing rapid changes due to global warming, especially as the Western Ice Sheet has been designated as one of the "warmest warming regions in the world."

Can't keep up with global warming! The penguins' survival became precarious

From 1957 to 2006, the region is said to have warmed up about 0.2⁰C every decade, about twice as much as on other continents.

Rising temperatures have also accelerated the melting of the ice sheet.

Antarctica's glaciers already account for about 4% of global sea level rise and are expected to begin collapsing by 2030.

If the entire glacier collapses, global sea levels would rise by more than 65 centimeters, potentially submerging low-lying islands such as the Maldives, seychelles and parts of Hawaii.

Of course, the effects extend to penguins that live mainly in Antarctica.

Penguins rely on sea ice for breeding, resting and moulting, and the loss of ice threatens their livelihoods.

And modern climate change may be so rapid that slow-evolving penguins can't adapt.

Can't keep up with global warming! The penguins' survival became precarious

Scientists say penguins have the ability to adapt to changing climates on timescales ranging from tens of thousands to millions of years, but we are now facing unprecedented rates of global warming.

If the Antarctic ice sheet melts too quickly, penguins will not have enough time to adapt and evolve into new environments. ”

Experts say that at the current rate of warming, the largest species, the emperor penguin, is expected to disappear by 70 percent by 2050.

Penguins have lived for tens of millions of years, weathering climate change time and time again, but it's unclear whether they'll survive the new "world."

New divisions of geological epochs, including the present, have proposed to focus on the negative human impact on the Earth's geology and ecosystems.

To prevent penguin extinctions, it is necessary to deepen our understanding of the slowdown in the rate of evolution while controlling human-induced global warming.

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