Day of the iguana

Source: ANU

Meet Brachylophus bulabula, the ‘hello hello’ iguana, which has recently been identified in Fiji.

The iguana was discovered during a study of how the ancestors of the reptiles arrived in the Pacific up to 13 million years ago, following an 8000 kilometre rafting trip from the Americas.

– ‘bula’ means ‘hello’ in Fijian – joins two other iguana species extant in Fiji, including the Fiji crested iguana, Brachylophus vitiensis, which is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.

The study was led by Associate Professor Scott Keogh from ANU’s School of Botany and Zoology and is published this week in a special themed edition of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, which pays tribute to Charles Darwin’s contribution to the Pacific region.

The other co-authors of the study are Danielle Edwards from ANU, Robert Fisher from the US Geological Survey in San Diego, and Peter Harlow from Macquarie University.

“The iconic Fijian iguanas are famous for their beauty and also their unusual occurrence in the middle of the Pacific Ocean because all of their closest relatives are in the Americas,” Keogh said.

“Two species were eaten to extinction after people arrived nearly 3,000 years ago. The three living Brachylophus iguanas face threats from habitat loss and modification, and from feral cats, mongooses and goats.”