On the slopes of the Wolf volcano at the northern tip of one of the Galapagos Islands prowls a pink iguana, which until recently had entirely escaped the notice of the island's visitors--including the eagle-eyed Charles Darwin. But now researchers have spotted the rosy reptile and declared it a new species, which diverged from the Galapagos's other land iguana species about 5.7 million years ago. Says lead researcher Gabriele Gentile:
"What's surprising is that a new species of megafauna, like a large lizard, may still be [found] in a well-studied archipelago" [National Geographic News].
The creature was first noticed by park rangers on the island of Isabela in 1986, but researchers only began to study the animal in the last few years. A genetic analysis revealed that the pink iguana was quite distinct from the two known land iguana species, but the date of their genetic divergence poses a puzzle.
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