In a first of its kind study, researchers from Vanderbilt University found that mammals’ best defense to adapting to climate change was diversity, and families with higher taxonomic diversity were better able to survive ongoing environmental changes.

A series of global warming events called hyperthermals that occurred more than 50 million years ago had a similar origin to a much larger hyperthermal of the period, the Pelaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), new research has found.

The ancient sifrhippus, the earliest known horse, lived around 50 million years ago. It was very distinct in its appearance because it was only about the size of a modern day house cat, weighing in around 12 pounds.

A recent study by an international group of evolutionary biologists has pointed to six broad yet distinct ‘waves’ of climate-induced mammalian diversity in the last 65 million years of evolution.

Earth warming will presumably not lead to a permanent El Niño state in the South Pacific Ocean.