Wild animals and natural habitats are rapidly being lost because of overpopulation and global climate change. Here I recount some of my own charmed life, including adventures and experiences, and I present some preliminary new data on gender differences in 80 lizard species from 14 different families. In most of these species of desert lizards, females are larger than males but males have relatively larger heads than females. Today's lizard ecologists face impediments and a difficult future in which species and habitats are in short supply. I plan to provide access to my own data as a legacy for frustrated future lizard ecologists. These data are described here and online at A Desert Lizard Data Book for the 21st Century ( http://www.zo.utexas.edu/faculty/pianka/Proposal.html).