Literal bird brains can accept climate change faster than Republicans

Earth is on fire although until very recently, pretty much all of the notable right-wing assholes (naturally) made their constituents think otherwise. While there has been a noticeable paradigm shift in the way the majority of them approach climate change, the fact that they have gone from ‘outright denial’ to ‘what the hell you can do ? acceptance ”does little to allay our utter contempt for those who have so knowingly led mankind to the brink of calamity.

This repulsion only deepens when we learn that literal bird brains have apparently noticed what is going on around them and have adapted accordingly for generations … well, those who did not die in mass extinctions, sure.

Earlier this week, Sara Ryding, an avian researcher at Deakin University of Australia, published in the journal a new study detailing recent physical changes in several species of birds to compensate for our roasted planet, Trends in ecology and evolution. In particular, their findings looked at body parts like the beak, ears, and legs, which often help keep animals cool.

“Appendages have an important, but often underestimated, role in animal thermoregulation as sites of heat exchange,” says Ryding and the co-authors of his paper, adding, “Animals change their morphology to have proportionately larger appendages in response to climate change and its associated temperature increases.

Based on what’s known as Allen’s Rule – the observable trend that animals in the warmer regions of the planet often have larger appendages to help with heat exchange – the team put in evidence species comprising several Australian parrots, which have posted between 4% and 10% higher bills since 1871 than “positively correlated with summer temperature each year. “Other species such as the North American Slate Junco are used as evidence indicating” an association between increased beak size and short-term extremes of temperature in cold environments. “

It’s not just the birds that change shape, either. Ryding’s article also details some mammals, such as small rodents, whose tail and paws also increase in size to accommodate variations in wild heat, as well as some bat species whose wingspan increases. to cope with their own environmental alterations.

Yet more proof that true pea-minded creatures have more common sense and conscience. that Ted Cruz in his best days.

[via BoingBoing]

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