Donald Miles, Ph.D.

In 2010, Dr. Miles and colleagues released the results of an alarming study - lizard populations are quickly becoming extinct around the world.

对蜥蜴进行了多年研究的迈尔斯认为，气温上升是罪魁祸首。 气候变化的速度超过了蜥蜴的适应能力。 如果全球变暖的模式继续下去，迈尔斯和他的同事们估计，到2080年，在南北美洲、欧洲、非洲和澳大利亚的大陆地区，超过20%的蜥蜴物种可能会灭绝。

In several locations the team found lizard populations they had previously studied had already become extinct. Madagascar has already lost 21 percent of the local lizard population, including such species as chameleons and gekkos, Miles says.

In order to prove their theory of climate change, the scientists chose to focus on populations with no habitat loss, many in protected, undisturbed environments where temperature is the only changing factor.

To investigate the link between these extinctions and temperature, the team of French, Mexican and American researchers built a device that mimics the body temperature of a lizard basking in the sun and records the temperatures on a microchip.

Lizards bask in the sun to increase their core body temperature and forage for food. But Miles and his team discovered that if temperatures became too hot, the lizards retreated into shaded areas, forcing them to abandon the hunt for food. In some locations, the team discovered the temperatures had grown too rapidly and the lizards had barely emerged before having to retreat to cooler spots. Extinction in these areas had already begun as a result. The disappearance of lizards may directly impact other species, such as birds or snakes, who feed on the reptiles.

An organismal biologist, Miles also conducts natural selection research at sites in Arizona's Sonoran Desert and central New Mexico. He studies characteristics, such as speed and strength and their relation to survival and reproduction.

Miles has also devoted years of research to the study of birds - most recently the effects of controlled forest burning on nesting success.