Brachylophus

The genus ''Brachylophus'' consists of four extant iguanid species native to the islands of Fiji and a giant extinct species from Tonga in the South West Pacific. One of the extant species, ''B. fasciatus'', is also present on Tonga, where it has apparently been introduced by humans.

Etymology and taxonomy

The name, ''Brachylophus'', is derived from two Greek words: brachys (βραχύς) meaning "short" and lophos (λόφος) meaning "crest" or "plume", denoting the short spiny crests found along the backs of these species.

''Brachylophus'' species are the most geographically isolated iguanas in the world. Their closest extant relatives (the genera ''Amblyrhynchus'', ''Conolophus'', ''Ctenosaura'', ''Cyclura'', ''Iguana'' and '' Sauromalus'') are present in primarily tropical regions of the Americas and islands in the Galápagos and Lesser and Greater Antilles. Several of these genera are adapted to xeric biomes. Phylogenetic evidence supports the ''Brachylophus'' lineage to have diverged from the rest of Iguanidae in the latest Eocene, about 35 million years ago. They are the second most basal extant genus in the family, with only ''Dipsosaurus'' diverging earlier. The location of members of ''Brachylophus'', so distant from all other known extant or extinct iguanids, has long presented a biogeographical enigma.

One hypothesis to account for this biogeographical puzzle, based in part on an estimated divergence date of 50 million years ago (although more recent studies have revised this to about 35 million years ago), is that these species are the descendants of a more widespread but now extinct lineage of Old World iguanids that migrated overland from the New World to Asia or Australia, and then dispersed by some combination of continental drift, rafting and/or land bridges to their present remote location. However, no other fossil or extant species of this putative lineage have been found to date in Southeast Asia, Australasia or the western Pacific outside of Fiji and Tonga.

A secondary hypothesis, and the more widely accepted one, is that these species evolved from New World iguanas that rafted west across the Pacific Ocean with the aid of the South Equatorial Current. While a rafting voyage of four months or more might seem implausible, the ancestors of ''Brachylophus'' may have been preadapted for such a journey by having water requirements that can be satisfied by food alone, as well as comparatively long egg incubation periods.

Extant species

The extant species are:

Historically, only the first two were recognized, but ''B. bulabula'' ("bulabula" is the Fijian word for "healthy" or "flourishing") was described in the central regions of Fiji by a team led by a scientist from the Australian National University in 2008. Detailed genetic and morphological analyses were made to conclude that ''B. bulabula'' represents a third species. In 2017, ''B. gau'' was described as a new species from Gau Island.

A giant Tongan species, '' Brachylophus gibbonsi'', similar in size and build to an iguana of the genus ''Cyclura'' once existed on Lifuka, islands in the Ha‘apai group and Tongatapu but became extinct in prehistoric times due to predation by humans and their domestic animals. An even larger extinct iguana of the separate genus '' Lapitiguana'' was formerly present on Fiji.

References

* (1989) A Phylogenetic Analysis and Taxonomy of Iguanian Lizards (Reptilia: Squamata). University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Miscellaneous Publications 81: 1-65.
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* (2001): Total evidence, sequence alignment, evolution of Polychrotid lizards, and a reclassification of the Iguania (Squamata: Iguania). ''American Museum Novitates'' 3343: 1-38
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External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1411411

Lizard genera
Reptiles of Fiji
Reptiles of Oceania
Taxa named by Georges Cuvier