"Se vogliamo capire il futuro dobbiamo capire il passato". Sono queste le parole di Darin Croft, ricercatore dell’università americana Case Western Reserve, che ha appena presentato uno studio che ha permesso di far luce sulla storia geologica della catena montuosa delle Ande grazie a… una tartaruga.
Il fossile vecchio di 13 milioni di anni di uno di questi rettili è stato infatti trovato a 2'000 metri di altitudine, in quello che oggi è un arido altopiano.
I ritrovamenti suggeriscono che ai tempi della testuggine la regione aveva un clima completamente diverso, molto più umido di oggi, e che l'altitudine fosse inferiore di quella attuale, a sollevare l'intera catena montuosa delle Ande sono stati invece fenomeni tettonici.
Lo studio fornisce preziosi elementi per capire le trasformazioni ancora oggi in atto: "Considerati gli attuali cambiamenti climatici - ha commentato Croft - dobbiamo farci un'idea più precisa sui possibili futuri scenari, ad esempio su come l'aumento delle temperature possa influenzare il livello dei mari e la biodiversità".
ats/ZZ
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