Researchers said, pink iguanas unknown to Charles Darwin during his visits to the Galapagos islands may provide evidence of species divergence far earlier than the English naturalist's famous finches. The findings describe the black striped reptiles first seen in 1986 and only a few more times since as a new species.
To understanding of the evolution of species on the remote islands, which remain much as they were millions of years ago and which inspired Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Many of its species are found nowhere else. So far, this species is the only evidence of ancient diversification along the Galapagos land iguana lineage and documents one of the oldest events of divergence ever recorded in the Galapagos.
During Darwin's visit to the Galapagos in 1835 his observations of finch varieties with different shaped beaks scattered across the archipelago's some 100 islands were a key element in his formulation of the principles of evolution. As the finches spread around the islands and their populations became cut off from each other, the birds adapted to the food locally available by developing beaks of a shape most suitable to harvest it, his research showed. Darwin did not visit areas inhabited by the pink land iguana and so missed the species, whose existence suggests diversification in the Galapagos happened some five million years ago.
The researchers said, a genetic analysis showed that the pink reptile likely originated in the Galapagos and split from other iguana populations some 5 million years ago when the archipelago was still forming. The creatures only seem to live near a single volcano at most 350,000 years old, which means the reptiles that grow longer than a meter and up to 12 kilograms must have at one time existed elsewhere in the Galapagos, Gentile said.
The researchers documented fewer than 40 of the iguanas over two years and Gentile said conservation efforts and funds are urgently needed to keep the species from dying off.
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