Iguanas rafted more than 8,000 km from North America to Fiji

Fiji’s iguanas took the ultimate ocean voyage — and genomics proves it.

This study in PNAS, revealed that Fijian iguanas rafted over 8,000 km across the Pacific from North America — the longest transoceanic dispersal ever recorded for a terrestrial vertebrate.

To uncover this wild journey, researchers used genome-wide exon and ultraconserved element (UCE) data, enriched with help from Daicel Arbor Biosciences.

Their findings not only trace the iguanas’ ancestry to the North American desert iguana, but also highlight how rare founder-event speciation has shaped biodiversity in one of the world’s most remote island chains.