Holiday news Galapagos Islands Marine Iguanas – Iguanas aren’t really meant to swim. They tend to get cold, and the… http://ow.ly/16mPaT
Marine Iguanas, Fernandina Island, Galapagos
Iguanas aren’t really meant to swim. They tend to get cold, and they get water up their noses.
But this is the Galapagos where you can see the ‘before and after’ of evolution. Here’s the compressed timeline. Hungry land iguanas started to forage for algae and seaweed down by the shore. Over time they got braver and braver, going further and further into the water to eat. Their claws become longer and sharper to prize the algae from the rocks. They are now a quite separate species to the land iguana.
Their skin gets darker to help them warm up again after being in the cold water, eventually becoming black. Their swimming improves to the point where they can spend up to 30 minutes diving at depths of up to 15 metres.
I’m sure in time they will evolve a mechanism to keep the water out of their noses. As things stand, they do what we do and just sneeze it out. If you look closely at this photo you will see some white dots above the heads of the iguana. That’s an iguana sneeze.
This group were on Punta Espinoza of Fernandina Island. It’s a rugged open patch of lava down by the shore which gets very hot in the afternoon sun. It is a perfect place for the iguana to warm up after their foraging. You’ll see how they not only lie on the lava but on top of one another – anything to get warmth back (see the warming cuddle going on to the left). The heat also helps to warm the seaweed in their stomachs, aiding digestion.
The sheer number of marine iguanas at Punta Espinoza is amazing. It’s also a little nerve wracking. Black iguanas lying on black lava. It takes a lot of concentration not to tread on some tails.
For this photo I didn’t have a zoom, I was on my belly a few inches from the iguana. I was so close that I got sneezed on a couple of times.
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