Ancient Iguanas “Rafted” 5,000 Miles to Fiji, Study Shows

“Here, we investigate the occurrence and timing of the greatest known long-distance oceanic dispersal event in the history of terrestrial vertebrates—the rafting of iguanas from North America to Fiji,” the study explains. “Iguanas are large-bodied herbivores that are well-known overwater dispersers, including species that colonized the Caribbean and the Galápagos islands. However, the origin of Fijian iguanas had not been comprehensively tested.”

How did they do it?

Likely by a method researchers call “rafting” in which animals hop aboard a large tangle of vegetation, and ride it to a new destination. Somehow, these ancient reptilians survived a journey on a mess of plants across a fifth of the earth’s entire circumference. And when was this?

“Those data indicate that the closest living relative of extant Fijian iguanas is the North American desert iguana and that the two taxa likely diverged during the late Paleogene near or after the onset of volcanism that produced the Fijian archipelago,” the study says.

The Paleogene period was 66 to 23 million years ago. So, technically, sorta, kinda…iguanas were the first creatures to ride waves in Fiji – long before any human stumbled around.