Climate Change Could Lead to Mass Lizard Extinction

Why this is serious:

So-called climate change "skeptics" like to point out that the world's climate has changed dramatically in the past, and they're right, but not as right as they think they are -- they're missing an important point.

When the world transitioned from ice ages to what might be called "polar tropics" ages in the past -- when tropical conditions existed near the poles -- it did so over millions of years, giving biological evolution the chance to keep pace.

When the world goes from cool to hot over the geologically break-neck speed of a few centuries, there is no hope of evolution keeping pace.

Case in point -- lizards may have existed as long ago as 220 million years. They've weathered a lot of climate change. But now it might just be too fast.

Climate change could see dozens of lizard species becoming extinct within the next 50 years, according to new research published today. The often one-directional evolutionary adaptation of certain lizard species' reproductive modes could see multiple extinctions as the global temperature increases.

Globally it has been observed that lizards with viviparous reproduction (retention of embryos within the mother's body) are being threatened by changing weather patterns. A new study suggests that the evolution of this mode of reproduction, which is thought to be a key successful adaptation, could, in fact, be the species' downfall under global warming.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130305200306.htm

As a side note, and no offense to our NewsHabit owners here, but this reminds me of a gripe I had with NewsHabit -- the separate "Science" and "Climate Change" categories, as if to say that climate change somehow is not science.

Recently I heard Jeb Bush talking (surprisingly articulately) about the GOP's image, of it being anti-science for one thing. He said the party needed to appear to be "for" something and not "against" everything.

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/51043481#51043481

I agree with you about those topics in Newshabit. It bothered me, also.

i personally find lizards to be creepy although i kind of liked the Godzilla movies.

sorry, i don't mean to be accumulating posts by saying what i could have said in my previous post but this is an after thought. what about the Jesus lizard? oh, never mind. honestly i'm not drunk (yes you are) no i'm not!