Other thumbnail pages: 1 - Boobies and other birds | 2 - Marine iguanas | 3 - Tortoises | 4 - Seals | 5 - Landscapes

The Marine Iguana is one of the Galapagos's unique animals, it is the world's only sea-going lizard. Like many other Galapagos animals, there is one species, but several races and subspecies found on the different islands that vary noticeably in size and colour. They are common throughout the Islands on rocky shores.

They vary from the largest found in the north of Isabela Island which can grow to 1.3m, to the smallest found on Genovesa which doesn't get any larger than 75cm. They remind one of some sort of "Lost World" creature, with a spiky crest from the head all the way to the tail and some subspecies, the males in particular developing red or red and green colouration during the breeding season. They can sometimes appear to have some kind of growths on the skin due to the changes in colouration (but they don't).

These marine lizards fascinated the young Charles Darwin, on his visit to the Islands on board the Beagle, he grabbed one by the tail and swung it out into the ocean. It swam back. He repeated the exercise until he deduced that on land, the iguana faced no predators, but in the sea, unknown dangers lurked; though fully equipped to swim, the iguana found safety on shore. Note - do not try this today!

Picture courtesy NOAA

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