Paleornithology/Paleoclimatology-news

Fossils Shorebirds help the knowledgment about Austrla's climate change.

The ecology of shorebirds is closely linked to coastal environments. In the new study, Karl M. Lenser et al. reconstruct the development of the shoreline, based on Pleistocene deposits from the Naracoorte Caves World Heritage Area, South Australia, which contain remains from 60,000 years ago. They found a significant phase of drying that would have caused substantial ecosystem modification. Over half of the nearly 300 bones examined by the authors were identified as plains wanderers, highly selective birds that prefer wooded habitats, found where today open grasslands extend.