Penguin DNA Suggests Special Climate Coping

Oct. 14, 2008 -- DNA in the bones of Adelie penguins that survived the last ice age are helping to shed light on how other animals will cope with climate change, say researchers.

Evolutionary biologist Professor David Lambert of Griffith University in Brisbane and colleagues report their analysis of Adelie penguin DNA dating back to 37,000 years in the journal PLoS Genetics.

"Adelie penguins are a wonderful model to study the problem of climate change," said Lambert. "They have lived through temperature fluctuations much higher than those in equatorial regions."

Lambert said Adelie penguins have survived several degrees of warming since the last glacial maximum 18,000 years ago.

Related Content:

And he expects them to have been around 120,000 years earlier than that, during the peak of the ice age before last.

Adelie penguins are one of very few species that have survived in large numbers over such a long time, said Lambert.

If species are able to move geographically, there is evidence that they can combat climate change by staying within their preferred temperature range, he added.

"The problem for Adelie penguins is they've got nowhere to go," he said. "They're in the coldest place they can be."

The fact Adelie penguins have survived extreme changes in temperature may mean that some species are able to respond to climate change even when they can't move geographically.