Darwin Missed a Beauty

In 1986 park rangers in the Galapagos Islands discovered the rare "rosada," or pink, iguana. Living only on the Volcan Wolf Island of the famous chain, these land iguanas are pink with black spots, making the park rangers think that they had problems with their skin pigmentation. Recent genetic testing has shown that this unusual iguana is, indeed, a totally separate species. Washington Tapia, head of research at Galapagos National Park, stated in an interview run in the "Edmonton Journal" of January 11, 2009 that: "We have not yet determined the size of the population, but we estimate that it is small because we have only captured 36 pink iguanas for research up to now." (My question is: Why are you capturing them in the first place? One specimen can give all the genetic information needed.)

One reason Darwin was not aware of the pink iguana was that he never visited Volcan Wolf Island. Neither was he particularly fond of the iguanas that he did see on the islands, referring to them as "hideous-looking creatures, of a dirty black colour, stupid and sluggish in their movements."¹ However, Gabriele Gentile and his colleagues from the Tor Vergata University of Rome have found that the pink iguana is more than just an ugly face. It originated in the Galapagos Islands more than five million years ago and diverged from the other species of iguanas as the island chain was forming, which makes it older than the more common iguanas found there.Gabriele Gentile's report to the National Academy of Sciences also emphasized that the rosada iguana differs from the other iguanas as it has flat dorsal head scales has a totally different method of head-bobbing during the mating season.

The scarcity of this ancient species and the fact that it is only found on Volcan Wolf Island has prompted the research team to call for protection of the rosada iguana. Gentile and other authors of the report submitted to the National Academy of Sciences have stated that: "these findings call for a conservation program aimed at evaluating the risk of extinction of this newly recognized species."² In order to get people involved in saving this rarest of animals, Gentile has published his email, where opinions and conservation funding can be dropped off. (gabriele.gentile@uniroma2.it)

1 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 5, 2009

2 Pink iguana Discovered in Galapagos; "Doh!" says Darwin, Lisa Lombardi, January 5, 2009