Turtles Disappearing millions of years ago?

Around 71 million years ago, there was a climate change in Alberta's Drumheller area. Turtles are considered to be climate sensitive organisms, so it was believed that the climate change caused them to leave this area. However, a discovery has been made that suggests the turtles left before the climate change. Now it seems as if a habitat change caused the turtles to leave rather than the climate change.

The habitat in which the turtles were living in was a subtropical forest, near an inland sea, which leads to many wetlands. The wetlands are believed to be the homes of these ancient turtles. The new discoveries being made suggest that the wetlands started to disappear in this time period. The departure of the turtles from the area seems to correspond directly with the destruction of their habitat rather than the cooling period due to climate change.

Before this discovery it was believed that climate change had a greater impact on the turtles than the habitat changes. Now, its is believe that overall the habitat changes had a greater impact. It was surprising to most scientists to learn that even if a climate is "ideal" if the habitat isn't right for the organism it could die out or choose to leave. Before this I, like the scientists would've believed that the climate would have a larger effect. This could do with watching the movie Ice Age too frequently when I was younger (although the climate obviously changed then too), or just assumption. I definitely learned something new by reading this article.

This discovery about how the habitat rather than the climate change effected the turtles could lead to a different way of thinking about other organisms too. Perhaps this could change beliefs about other organisms too. This small discovery could potentially change the way things have been considered to be for decades now. I hope that this discovery would open up possibilities of taking a second look at the way things are now. The migration of animals over the years due to what was beleive to be climate change could end up being due to habitat change instead.

I'm not sure why but when reading this article humans popped into my mind. If you think about it, its not necessarily climate change that would cause us to move or "migrate" but rather habitat change. If it gets really cold out, you buy heavier jackets to wear, if it gets really warm out, tank tops and shorts suffice. However, if your house catches on fire, or is deemed unfit to live in due to mold or faulty building, you move. That in a way is habitat change. So when it comes to humans, it seems as if habitat change would have a greater impact overall in comparison to climate change. Obviously all organisms are not the same as humans, but it is an easy way of thinking about this issue.

I found this article to be unbiased, and I definitely learned  a lot and have a new outlook on the situation after reading it. However, there is the possibility that I am over thinking the issue, maybe it was just these turtles this one time, but it would be interesting to go back and double check previous discoveries and find out for sure.