Vigo: Global temperatures are expected to rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next few decades compared to pre-industrial temperatures, with immediate climate change expected to have immediate devastating effects on animals and plants around the world.

To tackle this problem, scientists are trying to find out how ancient animals dealt with climate change in the past and using this information to determine how animals in the past can deal with climate change.


In a new study published in Current Biology, researchers examined the remains of 100-million-year-old ground and freshwater turtles. In those times, the temperature used to be much warmer than the present-day temperature.

Scientists used the information obtained from the analysis to try to find out how today's turtles will be able to cope with future climate events.

"Turtles are the best biological models to understand the biogeography of living animals because of their long evolutionary history," said lead author Dr. Elfio Alessandro, a researcher at the University of Vigo.

He said that by looking at the present turtles and the remains of the past and creating an ideal climate condition for them, it was known that in the past turtles used to go to the poles in times of global warming.

Professor Paul Barrett, senior author of the study, said that the study found that many areas where there are currently different species of turtles will become hot and dry due to global warming in the future.


He said that on the other hand, where the world will be warm, some places that were not suitable for turtles will be favorable then they will be able to migrate to these areas. But it depends on if they can make this migration on time, and they do not face any kind of human intervention.