Iguana

This article is about the genus. For the best known species, see Green iguana. For the family of related lizards, see Iguanidae. For other uses, see Iguana (disambiguation).

Iguana (/ɪˈɡwɑːnə/,^[3][4] Spanish: [iˈɣwana]) is a genus of herbivorous lizards that are native to tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his book Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena. Three species are placed in the genus: the green iguana, which is widespread throughout its range and a popular pet, the marine iguana and the Lesser Antillean iguana, which is native to the Lesser Antilles. Genetic analysis indicates that the green iguana may comprise a complex of multiple species, some of which have been recently described, but the Reptile Database considers all of these as subspecies of the green iguana.^[5][6]

Iguana Temporal range: Holocene - Recent^[1]^[2]
A green iguana (Iguana iguana)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Iguania
Family:	Iguanidae
Genus:	Iguana Laurenti, 1768
Type species
Iguana iguana Linnaeus, 1758
Species
Lesser Antillean iguana, I. delicatissima Green iguana, I. iguana
Synonyms
Hypsilophus Wagler, 1830

A male green iguana

The word "iguana" is derived from the original Taino name for the species, iwana.^[7] In addition to the two species in the genus Iguana, several other related genera in the same family have common names of the species including the word "iguana".^[8]

The species is a popular quarry for pets, and non-native animals have been widely introduced beyond its native area, into Ishigaki Island, the Florida Peninsula, Hawaii, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and including numerous islands with native Iguana populations in the Lesser Antilles.^[6][9]

Anatomy and physiology

Iguanas are large lizards that can range from 1.2 to 2.0 m (4 to 6.5 ft) in length, including their tails. They possess a dewlap and a row of elongated scales running from the midline of their necks down to their tails. Iguanas have varying types of scales covering different areas of their body; for example, some large, round tuberculate scales are scattered around the lateral region of the neck among smaller, overlapping scales.^[10] The scales on the dorsal trunk of their bodies are also thicker and more tightly packed than those on the ventral sides.^[10] These scales may be a variety of colors and are not always visible from close distances. They have a large, round scale on their cheeks known as a subtympanic shield.^[11]

Iguanas have keen vision and can see shapes, shadows, colors, and movement at long distances. Their visual acuity enables them to navigate through crowded forests and to locate food. They employ visual signals to communicate with other members of the same species.^[11]

The tympanum, the iguana's eardrum, is located above the subtympanic shield (or "ear shield") behind each eye.

Iguanas are often hard to spot, as they tend to blend into their surroundings, and their coloration enables them to hide from larger predators.^[11]

Like most reptiles, an iguana has a three-chambered heart with two atria, one ventricle, and two aortae with a systemic circulation.^[12] The muscles of an iguana are very light in color due to the high proportion of fast-twitch, glycolytic muscle fibers (type A). These A fibers are not very vascularized and are low in myoglobin, giving them their pale look. This high density of A fibers allows iguanas to move very quickly for a short period of time, which facilitates short bursts of movement, but is inefficient for long duration movement, since cellular respiration in A fibers is anaerobic.

Parietal eye

Several species of lizards, including the iguanas, have a pale scale towards the back of their heads marking the parietal eye. This organ is sensitive to changes in illumination and sends signals to the pineal gland noting the change between day and night. A photopigment commonly found in the lamprey, known as parapinopsin, is also found in the iguana, and is sensitive to ultraviolet light and aids in the signaling between day and night.^[13]

Skull morphology and diet

 

Iguanas have an exclusively herbivorous diet,^[14] as illustrated above by a green iguana eating a mango in Venezuela.

Iguanas have developed an herbivorous lifestyle, foraging exclusively on vegetation and foliage.^[14] To acquire, process, and digest plant matter, herbivorous lizards must have a higher bite force relative to their size in comparison to carnivorous or omnivorous reptiles. The skull of the iguana has undergone modifications resulting in a strong bite force and efficient processing of vegetation, according to one study.^[15] To accomplish this biomechanically, herbivorous lizards have taller and wider skulls, shorter snouts, and larger bodies relative to carnivorous and omnivorous reptiles.^[15] Increasing the strength of the skull allows for increased muscle presence and increases the ability of the skull to withstand stronger forces.^[16]

 

Albino Iguana - Bred to be kept as a pet

 

Green iguana skull and teeth: The teeth of the green iguana sit on the surface of the jawbone, known as acrodontal placement.^[17]

 

Simple phylogeny with Reptilia highlighted in green: Iguanians are within Lepidosauria.

Furthermore, the teeth of the iguana are acrodontal, meaning that their teeth sit on top of the surface of the jaw bone^[17] and project upwards. The teeth themselves are small and serrated - designed to grasp and shear food.^[18]

Reproduction

Male iguanas, like other male examples of Squamata, have two hemipenes. During copulation, one hemipenis is inserted into the female's cloacal vent.^[19] A female can store sperm from previous mates for several years to continue to fertilize her eggs in case she finds no male within her territory when she is ready to lay again.^[20][21][22]

Mating/courtship

Iguanas tend to follow a promiscuous or polygynandrous mating style during the dry season. Mating during the dry season ensures that their offspring will hatch during the wet or rainy season when food will be more plentiful. Females control large territories, where they make several nests. Males compete for the females in an area and mark their won territory with a pheromone secreted from the femoral pores on the dorsal side of their hind limbs. Male behavior during sexual competition involves head bobbing, extending and retracting their dewlap, nuzzling and biting the necks of females, and on occasion, changing color. Once a female chooses a male, he straddles the female and holds her in place by biting onto her shoulder, which sometimes leaves scars on females. After copulation, eggs are laid within several nests and allowed to incubate. This low level of parental intervention with their offspring makes iguanas an example of r-strategy reproduction.^{[citation needed]}

Phylogeny

A phylogeny based on nuclear protein-coding genes, reviewed by Vidal and Hedges (2009), suggested that the subclade Iguania is in a group with snakes and anguimorphs (lizards). These groups share an oral gland capable of secreting toxins (a derived trait).^[23] The phylogeny based on whole mitochondrial genomes, though, as proposed by Rest et al. (2003), places the green iguana as the closest relative of the mole skink (Plestiodon egregius).^[24] Lepidosaurs are reptiles with overlapping scales, and within this group both iguanians and tuataras (Sphenodon) project their tongues to seize prey items instead of using their jaws, which is called tongue prehension. Iguanians are the only lineage within the Squamata that display this trait, meaning that it was gained independently in both iguanians and tuataras.^[23] Iguanians are also the only squamates that primarily use their sight to identify and track prey rather than chemoreception or scent, and employ an ambush technique of catching prey instead of active searching.^[23]

A study by Breuil et al. (2020) found the taxonomy of the genus Iguana as follows, with I. delicatissima being the most basal member of the group.^[5] The species are classified as subspecies based on the ReptileDatabase definitions.

	Sauromalus Iguana I. delicatissima I. iguana "I. i. rhinolopha" I. i. insularis I. i. sanctaluciae I. i. melanoderma I. i. iguana

The Reptile Database synonymizes I. rhinolopha with I. iguana, only considering it a distinctive population, and recognizes I. insularis and I. melanoderma as subspecies of I. iguana. Four subspecies of green iguana are recognized under this treatment: I. i. insularis (Saint Vincent & the Grenadines and Grenada), I. i. sanctaluciae (Saint Lucia), I. i. melanoderma (parts of the northern Lesser Antilles, and potentially coastal Venezuela, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico), and I. i. iguana (mainland South America).

Extant species

Two extant species in the genus Iguana are widely recognized.

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
	Iguana delicatissima	Lesser Antillean iguana	The Lesser Antilles on Saint Barth, Anguilla, Sint Eustatius, Guadeloupe, Dominica, and Martinique
	Iguana iguana	Green iguana	Most of South America, from Colombia east to French Guiana and south to northern Argentina. Also introduced to parts of the Caribbean. If other species formerly considered conspecific are included, ranges north to southern Mexico and the southern Caribbean; specifically Grenada, Aruba, Curaçao, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Útila.

Subspecies

Three Caribbean subspecies of the green iguana are also recognized:

Image	Subspecies	Common name	Distribution
	I. i. insularis^[25]	Grenadines horned iguana	St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada
	Iguana iguana melanoderma^[5]	Saban black iguana	Saba, Montserrat, and formerly Redonda, but also possibly coastal Venezuela, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico (at least parts of this range may derive from (pre)historic introductions).
	I. i. sanctaluciae^[25]	Saint Lucia horned iguana	St. Lucia

The Central American iguana (I. rhinolopha or I. i. rhinolopha), sometimes considered a distinct species, is largely considered synonymous with I. iguana, as the presence of horns does not necessarily indicate a new species or subspecies. The two described subspecies of I. insularis (the Saint Lucia horned iguana, I. i. sanctaluciae, and the Grenadines horned iguana, I. i. insularis) were originally described as subspecies of I. iguana, although they are genetically very similar and may not be separate subspecies from one another.^[26] Recent studies have recovered I. rhinolopha and I. insularis as distinct species based on genetics, but the Reptile Database disagrees with these conclusions, and classifies I. rhinolopha as synonymous with I. iguana, and I. insularis as a subspecies of I. iguana.^[27] The Curaçao population of green iguanas shows major genetic divergence and may also represent an as-of-yet undescribed species or subspecies.^[5][28]

As food

Main article: Iguana meat

Iguanas have historically featured in the culinary traditions of Mexico and Central America. Iguana meat is also consumed in parts of the United States and Puerto Rico.^[29] Also, the eggs of iguana are consumed in some parts of Latin America, such as Nicaragua and Colombia.^[30]

References

1. "Fossilworks: Iguana iguana".
2. "Fossilworks: Iguanidae".
3. Cambridge Dictionary
5. Breuil, M.; Schikorski, D.; Vuillaume, B.; Krauss, U.; Morton, M.N.; Corry, E.; Bech, N.; Jelić, M.; Grandjean, F. (2020). "Painted black: Iguana melanoderma (Reptilia, Squamata, Iguanidae) a new melanistic endemic species from Saba and Montserrat islands (Lesser Antilles)". ZooKeys (926): 95–131. doi:10.3897/zookeys.926.48679. PMC 7170970. PMID 32336922.
6. "Iguana iguana". The Reptile Database. Retrieved 2021-04-26.
7. Coles, William (2002), (PDF), U.S.V.I. Animal Fact Sheet #08, Department of Planning and Natural Resources US Virgin Islands Division of Fish and Wildlife, archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-12-11
8. Wildlife Review. U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. 1968.
9. van den Burg, M. P.; Goetz, M.; Brannon, L.; Weekes, T. S.; Ryan, K. V.; Debrot, A. O. (23 March 2023). "An integrative approach to assess non‐native iguana presence on Saba and Montserrat: Are we losing all native <i>Iguana</i> populations in the Lesser Antilles?". Animal Conservation. doi:10.1111/acv.12869. eISSN 1469-1795. hdl:10261/306882. ISSN 1367-9430. S2CID 257731680.
10. Chang, Cheng; Wu, Ping; Baker, Ruth E.; Maini, Philip K.; Alibardi, Lorenzo; Chuong, Cheng-Ming (2009). "Reptile scale paradigm: Evo-Devo, pattern formation and regeneration". The International Journal of Developmental Biology. 53 (5–6): 813–826. doi:10.1387/ijdb.072556cc. ISSN 0214-6282. PMC 2874329. PMID 19557687.
11. Lazell, J.D. (1973), "The lizard genus Iguana in the Lesser Antilles", Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, New York, vol. 145, pp. 1–28
12. DABVP, Ryan S. De Voe DVM MSpVM DACZM. . dvm360.com. Archived from the original on 2018-11-06. Retrieved 2017-05-13.
13. Wada, Seiji (June 2012). "Expression of UV-Sensitive Parapinopsin in the Iguana Parietal Eyes and Its Implication in UV-Sensitivity in Vertebrate Pineal-Related Organs". PLOS ONE. 7 (6): 6. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...739003W. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039003. PMC 3375259. PMID 22720013.
14. Lichtenbelt, Wouter D. van Marken (1993-08-01). "Optimal foraging of a herbivorous lizard, the green iguana in a seasonal environment". Oecologia. 95 (2): 246–256. Bibcode:1993Oecol..95..246V. doi:10.1007/BF00323497. ISSN 0029-8549. PMID 28312949. S2CID 2101397.
15. Metzger, Keith A.; Herrel, Anthony (2005-12-01). "Correlations between lizard cranial shape and diet: a quantitative, phylogenetically informed analysis". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 86 (4): 433–466. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2005.00546.x. ISSN 0024-4066.
16. Herrel, Anthony (2009). "Jaw and hyolingual muscle activity patterns and bite forces in the herbivorous lizard Uromastyx acanthinurus". Archives of Oral Biology. 54 (8): 772–782. doi:10.1016/j.archoralbio.2009.05.002. PMID 19481732.
17. . inside.ucumberlands.edu. University of the Cumberlands. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
18. Banzato, Tommaso; Selleri, Paolo; Veladiano, Irene A.; Martin, Andrea; Zanetti, Emanuele; Zotti, Alessandro (2012-01-01). "Comparative evaluation of the cadaveric, radiographic and computed tomographic anatomy of the heads of green iguana (Iguana iguana), common tegu ( Tupinambis merianae) and bearded dragon ( Pogona vitticeps)". BMC Veterinary Research. 8: 53. doi:10.1186/1746-6148-8-53. ISSN 1746-6148. PMC 3439268. PMID 22578088.
19. Lenny Flank (2007). Iguanas: Their Biology and Captive Care. Red and Black Publishers. ISBN 978-0-9791813-2-0.
20. "The Mating Behavior of Iguana iguana".
21. "Iguana Behavior- Coterc" (PDF).
22. Pianka, Eric R.; Pianka, Eric R.; Vitt, Laurie J. (2003-09-24). Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-23401-7.
23. Vidal, Nicolas; Hedges, S. Blair (2009). "The molecular evolutionary tree of lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians". Comptes Rendus Biologies. 332 (2–3): 129–139. doi:10.1016/j.crvi.2008.07.010. PMID 19281946. S2CID 23137302.
24. Rest, Joshua S.; Ast, Jennifer C.; Austin, Christopher C.; Waddell, Peter J.; Tibbetts, Elizabeth A.; Hay, Jennifer M.; Mindell, David P. (2003). "Molecular systematics of primary reptilian lineages and the tuatara mitochondrial genome". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 29 (2): 289–297. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00108-8. PMID 13678684.
25. Breuil, Michel; Vuillaume, Barbara; Schikorski, David; Krauss, Ulrike; Morton, Matthew N.; Haynes, Pius; Daltry, Jennifer C.; Corry, Elizabeth; Gaymes, Glenroy; Gaymes, Joanne; Bech, Nicolas (2019-05-20). . Zootaxa. 4608 (2): 201–232. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4608.2.1. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 31717144. S2CID 182634075. Archived from the original on 2020-04-14. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
26. "Iguana iguana". The Reptile Database. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
27. Stephen, Catherine L.; Reynoso, Víctor H.; Collett, William S.; Hasbun, Carlos R.; Breinholt, Jesse W. (2013). "Geographical structure and cryptic lineages within common green iguanas, Iguana iguana". Journal of Biogeography. 40 (1): 50–62. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02780.x. ISSN 1365-2699. S2CID 59353644.
28. Breuil, Michel; Vuillaume, Barbara; Schikorski, David; Krauss, Ulrike; Morton, Matthew N.; Haynes, Pius; Daltry, Jennifer C.; Corry, Elisabeth; Gaymes, Glenroy; Gaymes, Joanne; Bech, Nicolas (2018-11-08). "A story of nasal horns: A new species of Iguana Laurenti, 1768 (Squamata, Iguanidae) in Saint Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, and Grenada (Southern Lesser Antilles) and its implications for the taxonomy of the genus Iguana". bioRxiv: 466128. doi:10.1101/466128.
29. Campo-Flores, Arian (2012-08-20). "To Battle Iguanas, Puerto Rico Has New Plan: Put Them on Menu". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
30. "Nicaragua's Government Suggests Eating Iguana as Massive Food Crisis Looms". Vice. Retrieved 21 February 2020.

Further reading

• Frost, D. R. (1989). "A phylogenetic analysis and taxonomy of iguanian lizards". Pub Univ Kansas. 81: 1–65.
• Frost, D. R.; Etheridge, R.; Janies, D.; Titus, T. A. (2001). "Total evidence, sequence alignment, evolution of polychrotid lizards, and a reclassification of the Iguania (Squamata: Iguania)". American Museum Novitates (3343): 1–39. doi:10.1206/0003-0082(2001)343<0001:TESAEO>2.0.CO;2. hdl:2246/2896. S2CID 55299129.

External links

•   Media related to Iguana at Wikimedia Commons