Marine Iguana

• Found on the Galapagos Islands
• Scientists figure that land-dwelling iguanas from South America must have drifted out to sea millions of years ago on logs or other debris, eventually landing on the Galápagos. From that species emerged marine iguanas, which spread to nearly all the islands of the archipelago. Each island hosts marine iguanas of unique size, shape and color
• Gentle herbivores which eat only seaweed and underwater algea
• Threatened under the IUCN RED list
• Their short, blunt snouts and small, razor-sharp teeth help them scrape the algae off rocks, and their laterally flattened tails let them move crocodile-like through the water
• They have dark gray coloring to better absorb sunlight after their forays into the frigid Galápagos waters. And they even have special glands that clean their blood of extra salt, which they ingest while feeding
• Often have white “wigs” of salt on their heads from what they expel through glands near their nostrils

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