Digest: Predicting the future by learning from the past in lizards’ thermal traits*

Abstract

How do traitsevolve on a global scale? Ibargüengoytía et al. provide a framework for understanding the evolutionary history of thermal traits in a broadly diverse lizard family Liolaemidae and find that the lizards’ body temperature has evolved following the change in air temperature over the past ∼20,000 years, while the preferred body temperature for physiological functions has evolved at a lower rate. This difference results in a higher buffer to respond to global climate change, in particular for viviparous species, which usually show lower body temperatures in their natural environments. Oviparous species from the arid environments are at higher risk of extinction in the family Liolaemidae.