“Now it’s lizards going extinct due to climate change“. Anthony Watts has found another press release, in this case Study documents widespread extinction of lizard populations due to climate change from Villanova University, to which he adds some dumb photos (unless you agree with Anthony that posting Godzilla photo is clever) and even dumber remarks. Anthony scratches his head over the puzzler of how warmer might not be ‘gooder’ for a lizard. Too bad he lost interest before the fourth paragraph:

Although the lizards normally bask in the sun to warm up, higher temperatures exceeding their physiological limits keep them in the shade, restricting their activity and preventing them from foraging for food. The researchers used these findings to develop a model of extinction risk based on maximum air temperatures, the physiologically active body temperature of each species, and the hours in which its activity would be restricted by temperature. The model accurately predicted the disappearance of Mexican lizards and was then extended globally to lizards in 34 different families on five continents and validated by comparing the predicted results with actual local extinctions.

Oh, maybe Anthony should have kept quiet on this one. The comments are full of idiotic remarks about how many lizards are in this or that backyard. Deep thinking going on over there.