Chamois mountain goat in its natural habitat.
Credit: Shutterstock

Climate change is inducing some logically straightforward adaptations in plants and animals. As Earth’s temperature warms, species used to cooler climates make moves to escape the newfound warmth: Some bird species are shifting their ranges northward; some fish are moving towards the poles; and some plants are slowly moving upslope.

But recent research has uncovered another, less immediately obvious adaptation: As temperatures go up, some species are becoming—or are predicted to become—smaller.

Last month, for instance, a study found that the size of European House Sparrows living in Australia and New Zealand corresponded with their region’s maximum summer temperature, with the smallest birds living in the areas with the warmest summer highs. Sam Andrew, the lead researcher on the study, recently published a different study on zebra finches that found similar results: higher temperatures mean smaller finches. This correlation could have implications for the birds’ sizes in the coming decades, as Earth’s temperature continues […]