According to a recent study by an international team of biologists, increase in temperatures – a phenomenon associated with global warming – is apparently taking its toll on lizards, which are an important link in the global food chain.

Going by the findings of the study, published in the Friday edition of the journal Science, increase in local temperatures in Mexico has resulted in the extinction of nearly twelve percent of Mexico’s spiny lizard population over the last 25 years.

Underlining the role of lizards in the global food chain, the researchers said that lizards consume insects and serve as food for larger species. With their disappearance, the viability of other species might also face survival threats.

Noting that though lizards are cold-blooded animals, for whom higher temperatures are beneficial, evolutionary biologist Barry Sinervo of UC Santa Cruz, the study’s lead author, elaborated: “These lizards need to bask in the sun to warm up, but if it gets too hot they have to retreat into the shade and then they can't hunt for food.”

As a result, the lack of sufficient food will have a pronounced effect on the reproductive process of the lizards.

The researchers opine that in case the pace of global warming continues, approximately 40 percent of lizard populations worldwide will have died off by 2080, and nearly 20 percent of lizard species will become extinct.