Too hot for a lizard? Climate change quickens the pace of extinction
CBSN
BISBEE, Ariz. — Boots dusty, lungs heaving, Dr. John Wiens searched the boulders of a desolate Arizona mountaintop for the last survivors of a 3-million-year-old lizard population — then said the words that both confirmed his life's work and broke his heart. The California condor, the largest flying bird in the U.S., with about 90 adults remaining in the wild. The iconic Florida panther, with about 200 animals remaining. The massive North Atlantic right whale, which roams the Atlantic Ocean; all that's left are 250 individuals.
"They're not there," he said. "It seems like the species is now extinct."
The loss of plant and animal species on Earth is happening at a speed never seen in human history, according to the United Nations. That includes the likely extinction of the lizards Wiens has studied for 10 years — the population of Yarrow's spiny lizards found in the Mule Mountains of southern Arizona.
