ComingsBirds.com/Galapagos

To the Beauty of the Galapagos

Marine Iguanas are seemingly everywhere on the shores of most of the Galapagos Islands where everywhere means on every island and sometimes every inch of some beaches. This is shown well in the first five photographs. The plethora of reptiles on such barren beaches raises the question – where do they get food for all? The answer is that they are Marine Iguanas. Marine Iguanas are the only aquatic lizards on earth. As such they are very at home in the water (0810, 0813). They can swim down to 40 feet to feed on the algae at the sea bottom. However, they cannot stay down long before getting too cold to move. They then return to the shore to warm up. Here their dark grey to black color results in the adsorption of maximum heat from the sun, although other colors are common (2413, 8292).

Up close Iguanas look prehistoric. In fact they are. They have been so successful there was no reason for them to go extinct.

As they grow they shed their skin (8289, 0211). Both lizards (1648) and the Sally Lightfoot Crab help to clean parasites from their skin.

Iguana Marine