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A genetically distinct population of Yarrow's spiny lizard in Arizona's Mule Mountains is facing local extinction due to climate change.

Conservationists have petitioned to list the lizard as a federally endangered species to provide protections.

Rising temperatures are forcing the lizards to higher elevations, a phenomenon known as the "escalator to extinction."

Pick a sunny day. Drive down Mule Pass just outside of Bisbee. Go through the tunnel. Find the trail that starts under a tree. Trek up Mount Ballard 7,000 feet, and look carefully.

There, in the sun-bathed spots of a massive tree-covered rock outcrop, are colorful lizards in one of the last places they exist in the Mule Mountains.

In southern Arizona, this scaly lizard population is in a rocky, upward rac

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