These animals are more vulnerable to extinction due to climate change

Marine invertebrates have a rich and well-studied fossil record, allowing us to identify when and potentially why species become extinct.

Using more than 290,000 fossil records covering more than 9,200 genera, the researchers compiled a dataset of key traits that may affect resilience to extinction. Including traits not previously studied in depth, such as preferred temperature.

This trait information was integrated with climate simulation data to develop a model understanding which factors were most important in determining extinction risk during climate change.

The research results

Among the key results of the research, several conclusions stand out. For starters, the authors found that species exposed to greater climate change were more likely to become extinct.

In particular, species that experienced temperature changes of 7°C or more across geological stages were significantly more vulnerable to extinction.

They also found that species that occupied climatic extremes (for example, in polar regions) were disproportionately vulnerable to extinction, and animals that could only live in a narrow range of temperatures (especially ranges below 15°C) were significantly more likely of to become extinct.

However, geographic range size was the strongest predictor of extinction risk.

Species with broader geographic ranges were significantly less likely to become extinct.

What influences climate change

Body size was also important, as smaller-bodied species were more likely to go extinct.

All traits studied had a cumulative impact on extinction risk. For example, species with small geographic ranges and narrow thermal ranges were even more susceptible to extinction than species that had only one of these traits.

Cooper Malanoski, from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, first author of the study, points out in a statement: “Our study revealed that geographic range was the strongest predictor of extinction risk for marine invertebrates, but that The magnitude of climate change is also an important factor as a predictor of extinction, which in fact has implications for current biodiversity in the face of climate change.’