Charles Darwin would have been tickled pink by a new species of Galapagos Iguana identified by scientists yesterday which the great naturalist missed during his travels.
Charles Darwin would have been tickled pink by a new species of Galapagos Iguana identified by scientists yesterday which the great naturalist missed during his travels.
The large lizard, now at risk of extinction, has rose-coloured scales and only lives on one volcano in the Galapagos Islands.
Darwin - whose 200th birthday will be celebrated on February 12 - observed both marine and land iguanas when he visited the archipelago in 1835.
The way the creatures had adapted themselves to their surroundings contributed to his revolutionary ideas about natural selection and evolution.
But he never explored the Volcan Wolf volcano on the island of Isabela, home of the pink iguana.
The iguana was spotted for the first time by Galapagos park rangers in 1986, but dismissed as a curiosity and quickly forgotten.
Yesterday scientists revealed that the "rosada" - or pink - iguana is not merely a freakish version of an ordinary land iguana. It is Galapagos royalty, and worthy of far more attention than it has received.
Not only is the lizard a species in its own right, but it has a lineage dating back more than five million years and evolved away from other iguana populations when the archipelago was still forming.
The emergence of the pink iguana, which occurred before the formation of the Volcan Wolf volcano, may have been one of the oldest diversification events in the Galapagos.
Action is now needed to prevent this scientifically valuable creature becoming extinct, say the researchers writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Italian expert Dr Gabriele Gentile, from the University Tor Vergata in Rome, led the team which carried out a genetic comparison between the pink iguana and other Galapagos land iguanas.
The scientists found that two known land iguana species, Conolophus subcristatus and Conolophus pallidus, were genetically more similar to each other than either was to the "rosada" form.
There were also physical differences, besides the "rosada's" striking pink and black-striped colouring. Pink iguanas had flat head scales, unlike other land iguanas, and a thick fatty crest on the back of the neck with small conical scales.
They also engaged in unusual "head bobbing" behaviour, which all land iguanas display during courtship and when defending their territories.
The scientists wrote: "This form is very important because it carries substantial evolutionary legacy, being basal to all other land iguana remnant populations."
The new species will be formally named at a later date.
Evidence suggested that the pink iguana was "critically endangered," as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said the researchers.
They warned: "Conservation efforts are needed to prevent this form, identified by us as a good species, from (facing) extinction."
