Researchers predict that the average total body mass of mammals will drop by 25 percent over the next century.
Over the next 100 years, the world will witness a shift towards smaller birds and mammals as the most adaptable species survive while others die out, according to research.
“The extraordinary variation across the ecological strategies of mammals and birds certainly lured me into this study,” Rob Cooke, lead author of the paper from Southampton, wrote in a blog post. “For instance, some large herbivores live for decades—for example, African elephants—while other small herbivores live fast and die young—such as mice, voles and agoutis.
“The diversity in ‘life strategies’ of birds and mammals is not only fascinating, it matters ecologically, as it’s increasingly well known that the diversity and redundancy of such strategies is critical for maintaining the Earth’s natural environments,” Felix Eigenbrod, another author of the study told Newsweek.
“If—as predicted—the most threatened birds and mammals go extinct, we’ll be left with species that are smaller, shorter lived, and more likely to eat insects than if a random selection of species went extinct,” he said.
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