A genetic analysis reveals that Fiji’s iguanas are most closely related to lizards living in North America’s deserts. How is this possible?

Iguanas rafted more than 8,000 km from North America to Fiji New genetics support the theory that iguanas voyaged to Fiji on ocean debris, in what scientists claim is the greatest known ocean journey in the history of land creatures.

The arrival of iguanas in the South Pacific can only be explained, a team of biologists have argued, if they caught a lift on a natural raft from the Americas. That’s a journey of 8,000 kilometers (5,