A Brief History of the Hand-standing Skunk

A western spotted skunk stands on its hands to deliver a smelly attack. (Credit: Jerry W. Dragoo) As the climate changes, many species are finding that areas they once called home are becoming less and less hospitable. These kinds of ecological shifts are natural, but they usually happen over much longer time scales, giving animals time to adapt. Today, their surroundings could shift so fast that they become premature relics in their own environments. To avert, or perhaps ease, this transition, researchers are looking backward in time to see how various species have coped with change in the past, in the hopes of learning lessons to apply to tomorrow.