For many years, the forests of Fiji have been home to a scientific mystery.

Fiji Crested Iguanas are one of four iguana species on these islands, but scientists weren’t entirely sure how iguanas got here.

Every other iguana species is native to North and South America—so how did these iguanas end up thousands of miles away?

Well, new evidence suggests these lucky lizards reached Fiji by raft!

DNA testing has revealed that the Fiji Crested Iguana’s closest living relative is the desert iguana, which lives in the Sonoran and Mojave deserts of the United States and Mexico.

The Fiji iguanas separated from their North American cousins between 34 and 31 million years ago, and the leading theory is that a group of iguanas somehow ended up being washed out to sea, on a raft of uprooted trees or other floating vegetation.

The raft would have then drifted freely on the ocean currents, for up to 4 months with the iguanas surviving by eating the plants they floated on.

dispersal event

The movement of a species from its original habitat to someplace new is called a dispersal event.

And similar raft dispersals may have brought other animals to Fiji too, like millipedes.

So, the mystery of Fiji’s iguanas might finally be solved. An epic ocean voyage—a long time ago, from far, far away!

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