Burrowing Rainforest Sunskink

The rainforest sunskink is a brown lizard about 4.5 cm in length with five wide, splayed toes on each foot. They live in Queensland, Australia and use the dried up brown leaves on the forest floor to provide camouflage. Their current challenge with climate change is overheating due to the rising temperatures. In the future, their color will change from brown to moss green. Some rainforest sunskinks already have blue pigment, suggesting an easier change to green. This color would allow them to absorb less heat from the sun and still live on the forest floor using green foliage and moss-covered logs as camouflage. Their feet will also become less splayed, allowing them to burrow into the ground for more cooling and protection from predators. Their average clutch size is two eggs, so for these changes to compensate for climate change, adaptation would have to be rapid.