martes, 27 de noviembre de 2012

Ice Age warmth wiped out lemmings, study finds

Lemmings became "regionally extinct" five times due to rapid climate change during the last Ice Age, scientists have found.

Each extinction was followed by a re-colonisation of genetically different lemmings, according to the study.
It investigated how Europe's small mammals fared during the era when large numbers of megafauna became extinct.

Previously, experts believed that small mammals were largely unaffected during the Late Pleistocene.
But when the international research team analysed ancient DNA sequences from fossilised remains of collared lemmings (Dicrostonyx torquarus) from cave sites in Belgium, they were surprised by the results.

"What we'd expected is that there'd be pretty much just a single population that was there all the way through," said research team member Dr Ian Barnes from the school of biological sciences at Royal Holloway University in Surrey.

Instead the tests revealed that genetically distinct populations of lemmings were "present at different points in time" during the Late Pleistocene, 11,700 to around 126,000 years ago, meaning that the lemming population had been wiped out multiple times and then re-colonised some time after, possibly from populations in eastern Europe or Russia. [...] bbc.co.uk/

Actualización. Los roedores que "se extinguieron cinco veces por el cambio climático"
Los leminos o lemmings, roedores que habitan en la tundra y el Ártico, se extinguieron regionalmente cinco veces debido al cambio climático durante la última glaciación, según un nuevo estudio.

1 comentario:

salaman.es dijo...

Actualización. Los roedores que "se extinguieron cinco veces por el cambio climático".