Pink land iguana
| Galápagos pink land iguana | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Iguania |
| Family: | Iguanidae |
| Genus: | Conolophus |
| Species: | C. marthae |
| Binomial name | |
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Conolophus marthae Gentile & Snell, 2009 |
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Conolophus marthae, the Galápagos pink land iguana, is a species of lizard of the family Iguanidae. This critically endangered iguana is native only to the Wolf Volcano in northern Isabela Island of the Galápagos (Ecuador). The iguana has a pink body with some dark stripes, prompting some to call it the pink iguana or the Galápagos rosy iguana. The species was first discovered in 1986 and was identified as a separate species, distinct from the Galápagos land iguana, early in 2009. This species is the only example of ancient diversification in the genus Conolophus and documents one of the oldest events of divergence ever recorded in the Galápagos.
The generic name, Conolophus, is derived from two Greek words: conos (κώνος) meaning "spiny" and lophos (λοφος) meaning "crest" or "plume," denoting the spiny crests along their backs.
A tentative specific name, rosada, was derived from the Spanish word meaning "pink" in reference to the animal's pinkish body color. The term was later abandoned for the formal description; and the specific name, marthae, was chosen in memory of Martha Rebecca Gentile, the stillborn daughter of the describer Gabriele Gentile.
The species was first formally described in early 2009 as being distinct from the other land iguana populations. Genetic analysis of the pink subpopulation found that this particular species diverged from a common ancestor with C. subcristatus and C. pallidus some 5.7 million years past. In comparison, C. subcristatus and C. pallidus only split much more recently, and Conolophus (the genus of all three land iguanas) and Amblyrhynchus (marine iguana) diverged about 10 million years ago.
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