Researchers who have studied genetic evidence of iguanas suggest the ancient reptiles traveled nearly 5,000 miles from North America to Fiji on floating vegetation.

Fiji, an archipelago of over 300 islands in the South Pacific, is a biodiversity hotspot teeming with unique and often endemic wildlife. Isolated for millions of years, the islands have given rise to species found nowhere else on Earth,

There are 45 different species of Iguanidae in the Caribbean and the tropical, subtropical and desert areas of North, Central, and South America, including the marine iguanas of the Galapágos and the chuckwallas in the American Southwest.