THE MARINE IGUANA OF THE GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS

The Jones with some iguanas

This morning, The Jones have decided to visit the beautiful beaches of Santa Cruz Island. After their meeting with some scientists who explained them the last researching in the islands, the family has decided to go to the beach to relax, to study some English and to discover the wonderful world of the marine iguana.

The family has revised The Passive in Present and Past Simple and have read another new chapter of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Finally, the family has been talking about the difficulties of working in some environments, the bureaucratic rules that difficult our work and the obsession of a great part of the society of getting as money as they without any kind of ethics or responsibility. 

More information: The Passive-Present Simple & The Passive-Past Simple

The Grandma has offered her opinion about her lifestyle where money is something necessary to survive in a capitalist system but it mustn't be the centre of our lives, a place destined for real important things like family, friends and health. She has been also talking about the importance of reading the documents from the beginning to the end and has remembered her old times studying phonetics with some spectrograms, an incredible tool to identified voices, sound and messages.

Download The Passive

This afternoon, the family is enjoying the Ecuadorian beaches and they are listening incredible and amazing stories told by Claudia Jones who is an expert in The Galápagos Islands and who has invited the family to taste some of the best Ecuadorian chocolates. Thanks a lot, Claudia!

The marine iguana or Amblyrhynchus cristatus, also known as the Galápagos marine iguana, is a species of iguana found only on the Galápagos Islands that has the ability, unique among modern lizards, to forage in the sea, making it a marine reptile. 

This iguana feeds almost exclusively on algae and large males dive to find this food source, while females and smaller males feed during low tide in the intertidal zone. They mainly live in colonies on rocky shores where they warm after visiting the relatively cold water or intertidal zone, but can also be seen in marshes, mangrove and beaches.

More information: Galápagos Conservation

Marine iguanas vary in appearance between the different islands and several subspecies are recognized. Although relatively large numbers remain and it is locally common, this protected species is considered threatened.

Joaquín Jones is diving in the Galápagos Sea

Its generic name, Amblyrhynchus, is a combination of two Greek words, Ambly- from Amblus (ἀμβλυ) meaning blunt and rhynchus (ρυγχος) meaning snout. Its specific name is the Latin word cristatus meaning crested, and refers to the low crest of spines along the animal's back.

Researchers theorize that land iguanas, genus Conolophus, and marine iguanas evolved from a common ancestor since arriving on the islands from Central or South America, presumably by rafting. The land and marine iguanas of the Galápagos form a clade, and the nearest relative of this Galápagos clade are the Ctenosaura iguanas of Mexico and Central America. The marine iguana diverged from the land iguanas some 8–10 million years ago, which is older than any of the extant Galápagos islands. 

It is therefore thought that the ancestral species inhabited parts of the volcanic archipelago that are now submerged. The two species remain mutually fertile in spite of being assigned to distinct genera, and they occasionally hybridize where their ranges overlap, resulting in the so-called hybrid iguana of South Plaza Island.

More information: World Wild Life

My favorite animal on the Galapagos is the Galapagos Marine Iguana. The first rule of iguana-dom is that iguanas hate the water, 

yet somehow, these poor iguanas landed there and had to figure it out. 

Michael Bastian