The image of this article is of a rarely-seen Eyelash Viper, a snake you can see at the Mamoní Valley, named for the small, bristly, keeled scales like “eyelashes” just above each eye. It has been suggested that they protect the eyes as the snake moves through dense vegetation.

In evolutionary terms, reptiles have had a very successful track record, surviving catastrophic meteors, continental drifts and fluctuating temperatures over hundreds of millions of years.

But in an era dominated by human impacts, their resilience may be coming to an end.

A study published in Nature, assessed more than 10,000 reptiles around the world -from turtles, snakes and lizards to crocodiles-, and found that more than a fifth of all these species are threatened with extinction.

Data showed that reptiles are increasingly threatened by widespread habitat loss driven by logging and agricultural expansion. And another threat looms on the horizon for these scaly species: climate change.

Reptiles are particularly vulnerable to changing temperatures fueled by climate change. In dry, arid areas such as the desert, many reptiles are already living at the edge of their heat tolerance. A small increase in temperature could make their habitats unlivable.

While the findings of this study are disappointing, determining what activities are harming reptiles also gives us insight into how we can protect them, and many global conservation initiatives implemented for other species can and will likely benefit reptiles.