First-known Fossil Iguana Burrow Found in the Bahamas
Published:10 Dec.2020 Source:Emory Health Sciences
The fossilized burrow dates back to the Late Pleistocene Epoch, about 115,000 years ago, and is located on the island of San Salvador -- best known as the likely spot where Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in his 1492 voyage.
"San Salvador is one of the outer-most islands in the Bahamas chain and really isolated," says Anthony Martin, a professor in Emory's Department of Environmental Sciences and senior author of the PLOS ONE paper. "It's a mystery how and when the modern-day San Salvadoran rock iguanas arrived there. Today, they are among the rarest lizards in the world, with only a few hundred of them left."