Over the long, slow process of natural selection, species survive by adapting to their environments by developing traits suited to those environments. The insulating coat and subcutaneous fat of polar bears allow them to live in the Arctic ice. Kangaroo rats are able to survive in the desert because they don’t need to drink water; they’ve evolved the ability to survive on the small amount of moisture they get from the seeds they eat.
But environments can change rapidly. A volcanic eruption might cause average temperatures to drop for several seasons, and a wildfire can destroy food sources. When something like this happens, a species may suddenly find that adaptations developed over millions of years of natural selection are no longer beneficial. This is called evolutionary mismatch, and it can have potentially devastating results.
Climate Change Drives Adaptation
Species respond to environmental change in three different ways, says Melanie Hopkins, curator and chair of the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. “They either move to some place where the environment's better, they adapt to the environment, or they go extinct.” When there is nowhere to go, and the environment is changing faster than evolution can keep up, extinction may be inevitable.
