56 million years ago, Earth underwent rapid global warming. Here’s what it did to pollinators

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 12:12:57 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/56-million-years-ago-earth-underwent-rapid-global-warming-heres-what-it-did-to-pollinators-260297>

"Pollinators play a vital role in fertilising flowers, which grow into seeds
and fruits and underpin our agriculture. But climate change can cause a
mismatch between plants and their pollinators, affecting where they live and
what time of year they’re active. This has happened before.

When Earth went through rapid global warming 56 million years ago, plants from
dry tropical areas expanded to new areas – and so did their animal pollinators.
Our new study, published in Paleobiology today, shows this major change
happened in a remarkably short timespan of just thousands of years.

Can we turn to the past to learn more about how interactions between plants and
pollinators changed during climate change? That’s what we set out to learn."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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