A study published in the journal Evolution, with the participation of the ‘Rui Nabeiro’ Chair holder Prof. Miguel Araújo, was highlighted by the prestigious "Faculty 1000 Biology".

Faculty of 1000 Biology is an award-winning online service that highlights and evaluates the most interesting papers published in the biological sciences, based on the recommendations of over 2000 of the world's top researchers. It was launched in January 2002 and already over 90% of the world's top institutions subscribe (e.g. NIH*, Johns Hopkins and all Max Planck Institutes). Papers are highlighted on the basis of their scientific merit rather than the journal in which they appear.

The proposed methodology has demonstrated that the size of the "climate footprint" observed during the Quaternary, on every continent, was directly related to the level of extinctions of mammals. For example, the African continent had a moderate level of extinction during the Quaternary, but the level of exposure to climate change was also moderate. In contrast, European and North American continents have high extinctions and climate footprint was high. There was only one exception: the South American continent. According to existing data, this was one of the continents most affected by Quaternary extinctions but neither the weather nor humans have left a "footprint" visible during this period.

The results of this study help to clarify the old controversy about the Quaternary extinctions. Were they due to human factors or climate?

The result of analysis reinforces the idea that climate change will have been the source of many extinctions still is not discarded the possibility that the interaction between humans and climate have had a more lethal to many species, than either factors considered in isolation.

Nogués-Bravo, D., Ohlemueller, R., Batra, P. & Araújo, M.B. 2010. Climate Predictors of Late Quaternary extinctions. Evolution 64-8: 2442–2449