Lizards Driven To Extinction Due to Global Climate Change

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Global climate change is driving lizards to extinction, imperiling the ecological web of life that depends on these ancient creatures, according to an international research effort led by UC Santa Cruz ecologist Barry Sinervo.

Lizard's lives are closely tied to temperature — if it gets too hot, they seek refuge in burrows where there's no food. If it stays hot too long, the creatures will eventually starve, said Sinervo, who has studied lizards in the wild for 26 years and keeps 200 of them for closer study in a campus greenhouse.

The findings, published in Friday's issue of the journal Science, are "devastating and heart-wrenching," said Sinervo. "I don't want to tell my child that we once had a chance to save these lizards, but we didn't."

The disappearance of lizard populations is likely to have repercussions up and down the food chain, because lizards are important prey for many birds, snakes, and other animals, and they are important predators of insects.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15073445

[Edweird]

1. Which ones? Iguanas are happily populating South Florida. Tegus

are here now, too.

[Angry Dragon]

2. This is okay

man will just be the first to make their own species extinct. Then the other animals and insects will have a chance to have the planet to themselves.

Man's downfall brought on by greed, arrogance, intolerance, and religion.

[Oregone]

3. Well, they had a good run.

But they failed to even establish complex language after that many years. Sorry lizards...you're fired.

[jgraz]

4. Shit. I was hoping "lizards" was a euphemism for House Republicans.

Lizard Man

[Rebubula]

5. Bah

The Lizards went extinct from doing things smart people don't do.

-Rutherford the Brave