Ancient Iguanas 'Rafted' 5,000 Miles to Fiji, Study Shows
Today, Fiji is an idyllic island chain in the South Pacific, home to impossibly blue waters, elite vacation resorts, a vibrant local culture overflowing with tradition, and one of the world's finest waves: Cloudbreak, located off Tavarua Island. But millions of years ago, long before surfers ever ventured to the Fijian Island chain, a group of intrepid iguanas made the 5,000-mile journey.
But how in the hell did iguanas, who are native to North America, make their way across the Pacific and into the Fijian Islands. Well, scientists with lots of time on their hands figured it out.
'Here, we investigate the occurrence and timing of the greatest known long-distance oceanic dispersal event in the history of terrestrial vertebrates—the rafting of iguanas from North America to Fiji,' the study explains. 'Iguanas are large-bodied herbivores that are well-known overwater dispersers, including species that colonized the Caribbean and the Galápagos islands. However, the origin of Fijian iguanas had not been comprehensively tested.'
How did they do it?Likely by a method researchers call 'rafting' in which animals hop aboard a large tangle of vegetation, and ride it to a new destination. Somehow, these ancient reptilians survived a journey on a mess of plants across a fifth of the earth's entire circumference. And when was this?
'Those data indicate that the closest living relative of extant Fijian iguanas is the North American desert iguana and that the two taxa likely diverged during the late Paleogene near or after the onset of volcanism that produced the Fijian archipelago,' the study says.
The Paleogene period was 66 to 23 million years ago. So, technically, sorta, kinda…iguanas were the first creatures to ride waves in Fiji – long before any human stumbled around.
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Here's a list of 2025's full moon dates: January 13: Wolf Moon February 12: Snow Moon March 14: Worm Moon April 12: Pink Moon May 12: Flower Moon June 11: Strawberry Moon July 10: Buck Moon August 9: Sturgeon Moon September 7: Corn Moon October 6: Harvest Moon November 5: Beaver Moon December 4: Cold Moon This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Full moon in June 2025 will be Strawberry Moon. Why it's special
