When ice sheets marched across North America 20,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum, they devoured liveable areas for caribou and isolated them from their Eurasian relatives for thousands of years.
Now researchers have evidence that such climatic events have sculpted the genetics of North American caribou, which may make the animals unable to adapt to future climate change.
“Although the past is not a guarantee for the future, it makes me pessimistic about the future of the species,” says Glenn Yannic, a population geneticist at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada, and lead author of a study published in Nature Climate Change.
Read the full, original story: Caribou genetics reveal shadow of climate change
Additional Resources:
- The Genetics of Global Warming, Pacific Standard
- Climate Change Is Causing Some Mixed-up Wildlife, Audubon Society