450 million years of evolution: What can bats, plants and fish tell us about climate change?

The Earth's climate and atmospheric composition are changing at unprecedented rates, and by the year 2100 our climate will be drastically warmer than any time during human evolution. The novel integration of palaeontology, ecology and molecular biology is enabling scientists to understand the limits under which ecosystems can function, organisms can survive and biodiversity is sustained. This session will illustrate recent advances in our understanding of how bats, plants and fish have adapted and evolved over 450 million years of environmental change.

We will highlight: how fossil plant diversity responded to a catastrophic global warming event 200 million years ago; how a meteorite impact and greenhouse gas warming drove mammal and bat evolution 65-52 million years ago; and how fish populations and our oceans cope with the relentless exploitation by humans and the ever-rising pace of climate change. Our collective studies identify the consequences of exceeding an ecosystem’s or an organism’s tipping-point but also highlight the incredible wealth of survival capabilities of life on Earth. Only through the integration of these diverse scientific fields can we successful manage the Earth’s changing biodiversity in the face of future climate change.