The earth's rising temperatures could lead to the the shrinking of mammals including humans. Although early horses were much smaller than their current day counter parts, during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum when temperatures rose 10 degrees Celsius, the horses shrank to the size of a cat in 175,000 years. An author from the Florida Museum of Natural History said that after horses first appeared, they got smaller with the rise in global temperature, and then became larger when the global temperatures fell. This is not the first time that scientists have linked climate to the size of mammals. The global climate change that is going on right now might have an effect on the size of humans and mammals alike.
I think that this is a pretty interesting co-relation that scientists have discovered. I think that a smaller (shorter) human population could help with other problems in the world like food. Smaller people would tend to eat less food. I also find it interesting that horses were very small until humans began to breed them for size and speed.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/24/high_temps_shrink_mammals/
Yea, this seems pretty interesting and we can see this today. Hotter regions(except Africa) like Southeast Asia have much smaller people than colder places like Europe and North America. Also if the temperature increases 10 degrees like it did before, then its pretty much game over for us because its going to be so hot.
ReplyDeleteThis is unbelievable! I would of never thought of an outcome like this. Unfortunately there isn't anything the world can do globally. Also, this might be a problem, but many hot countries also face economic issues because it's so difficult to support their living expenses. Very interesting!
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