Rare reptiles are moving up mountains as the world warms. They can’t keep doing it forever

By Jane Melville, Senior Curator, Terrestrial Vertebrates, Museums Victoria Research Institute
Till Ramm, Research Associate, Sciences Department, Museums Victoria Research Institute

In pockets of highlands across Australia’s east lives a shy and secretive lizard. It’s usually reddish grey in colour, with two pale strips running the length of its spiky back. Growing to a maximum of 20 centimetres, it could easily fit in the palm of an adult’s hand.

But although the mountain dragon (Rankinia diemensis) is small, it can teach us big lessons about the influence of climate change on Australian biodiversity, as our new research, published today in Current Biology, demonstrates.

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Rare reptiles are moving up mountains as the world warms. They can’t keep doing it forever

Tracking…Read complete article© The Conversation - Tuesday, October 28, 2025

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© The Conversation - Tuesday, October 28, 2025