How Far Can An Iguana Raft With No Water?

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OilIsMastery said:
There is no fossil evidence of the banded iguana anywhere in the world but on Fiji and Tonga. And there are no green iguanas on any island in the Pacific except the ones introduced to Hawaii and New Zealand by humans.
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got a comprehensive list of palentological digs that cover a decent proportion of pacific islands? (all 30,000 ish of them)
 
OilIsMastery said:
fijibanded.jpg


Topic: Can Iguanas raft for 7,000 miles with no water and then mate on the other side?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachylophus_fasciatus



The farthest I've seen is 200 miles.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1590/is_8_55/ai_55183046



So in other words, the trip to Fiji-Tonga would be a 35 month journey with no water...:rolleyes:
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Actually that theory saying that Iguanas raft for 7,000 miles with no water is not the only existing theory. If the teory doesn't make sense, maybe there is other theories which are more acceptable.

For example like this, that suggests the human impact on its distribution:

Journal of Herpetology, Volume 38, Issue 1 (March 2004)
South Pacific Iguanas: Human Impacts and a New Species

Gregory K. PregillA and David W. SteadmanB

A. Department of Biology, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcalá Park, San Diego, California 92110, USA, B. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, P.O. Box 117800, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA

The diversity and distribution of Pacific island iguanas were altered drastically following human colonization around 2800 years ago. A giant iguana recovered from archaeological sites in the Ha'apai group of islands, Kingdom of Tonga, became extinct within a century of human arrival. We describe this iguana as a new species of Brachylophus, a genus with two small arboreal species found today in Fiji (Brachylophus fasciatus, Brachylophus vitiensis) and parts of Tonga (Brachylophus fasciatus). Additional evidence suggests that B. fasciatus was probably introduced to Tonga (the type locality) by prehistoric people 2000 years after extinction of the giant form. Lapitiguana impensa, described in 2003 from Fiji by G. K. Pregill and T. H. Worthy was an even larger extinct iguana that also succumbed to human impact. The two living species are relicts of a much richer evolutionary history than previously known.
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That one is quite new (2004). Your wikipedia link in the opening post refers to a reference dated 1974. So maybe there are already more finding after 30 years :shrug:
 
inzomnia said:
Actually that theory saying that Iguanas raft for 7,000 miles with no water is not the only existing theory. If the teory doesn't make sense, maybe there is other theories which are more acceptable.

For example like this, that suggests the human impact on its distribution:



That one is quite new (2004). Your wikipedia link in the opening post refers to a reference dated 1974. So maybe there are already more finding after 30 years :shrug:
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see oily - all we have to do is look and we find evidence

I suggest you stop looking - it'll only upset you -stick to dishonesty and sociopathy, it suits you so much better
 
Also, you might find this interesting, there is a type of iguana that can actually sneeze out salt of their noses (which means they could possibly just drink seawater without having to consume the salt):

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/reptiles/iguana-info.htm/printable

The Galapagos marine iguana lives in the sea. It is the only lizard that does so. This iguana lives on the Galapagos Islands, located off the coast of Ecuador.

Marine iguanas are found along coastal rocks, where they dive underwater to search for algae (AL jee) to eat. Algae are plantlike organisms that do not have stems, roots, or leaves. Another name for algae that grow in the ocean is seaweed.

Marine iguanas end up taking in a lot of salt because the algae they eat grow in salt water. To clear the salt out of their noses, marine iguanas sneeze and snort often. The salt they sneeze out glands atop their heads.

Marine iguanas, which are expert swimmers, must go into the sea for long periods to get enough food. They use their flattened tails to help them swim.
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http://hem.passagen.se/ognicop/diseases.html

Your iguana may sneeze quite often. In most iguanas this is a normal behavior. Iguanas do not sweat as humans do, so they do not excrete salt through their skin. Instead, they do it by sneezing. There is no need to alter the salt content of your iguana's diet if it seems to be sneezing a lot or hardly at all. If you house your iguana in a glass enclosure, you will find white spots on the glass. This is simply what your iguana sneezes out. It cleans up relatively easily.
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http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/marine-iguana.html

Did you know? Marine iguanas sneeze frequently to expel salt from glands near their nose. The salt often lands on their heads, giving them a distinctive white wig.
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inzomnia said:
Actually that theory saying that Iguanas raft for 7,000 miles with no water is not the only existing theory. If the teory doesn't make sense, maybe there is other theories which are more acceptable.

For example like this, that suggests the human impact on its distribution:

That one is quite new (2004). Your wikipedia link in the opening post refers to a reference dated 1974. So maybe there are already more finding after 30 years :shrug:
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These are more recent.

McCarthy, D.D., Biogeography and Scientific Revolutions, The Systematist, Number 25, Pages 3-12, 2005

McCarthy, D.D., Biogeographical and Geological Evidence for a Smaller, Completely-Enclosed Pacific Basin in the Late Cretaceous, Journal of Biogeography, Volume 32, Issue 12, Pages 2161 - 2177, 2005
 
inzomnia said:
Also, you might find this interesting, there is a type of iguana that can actually sneeze out salt of their noses (which means they could possibly just drink seawater without having to consume the salt):
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Yeah "The Galapagos marine iguana lives in the sea. It is the only lizard that does so."

Talking about banded iguanas and green iguanas only.
 
What's wrong with the floating island theory? It could have had trees on it, which acted like sails.
 
OilIsMastery said:
These are more recent.

McCarthy, D.D., Biogeography and Scientific Revolutions, The Systematist, Number 25, Pages 3-12, 2005

McCarthy, D.D., Biogeographical and Geological Evidence for a Smaller, Completely-Enclosed Pacific Basin in the Late Cretaceous, Journal of Biogeography, Volume 32, Issue 12, Pages 2161 - 2177, 2005
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Your two links suggest that the hypothesis in your opening post (the rafting iguana) is hardly acceptable. You are the one who came up with that hypothesis here. As I said in previous post, this isn't the only hypothesis available. Another hypothesis (and maybe there are more hypotheses) suggests human impact on the iguana distribution.

In an unrelated note, I have to say that the banded iguana is a cute species.
 
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On the contrary, rafting happens all the time, even to humans! There was a case during the recent tsunami in Indonesia of a man found miles offshore, clinging to debris. Large chunks of swampy vegetation often break off and drift around the ocean.
 
its really symple

"lashed sea turtles together and skied my way off the island"

Anyway you do realise that no one has taken into acount contental drift
 
OIM, some reason you completely skipped over my post where I pointed out your hypocrisy, linked you to a paper I've written and then asked you to provide evidence you're competent enough at mathematics to be able to evaluate my level of mathematical aptitude without making yourself even more of a hypocrite? Its just you complained that I shouldn't be calling McCarthy a crank because I'm not contributing to science. The fact I have was, I imagine, something you were not expecting and now you realised that attempt to 'trump' me back fired. :cool:

Further more, you consider much of the scientific community to be liars, cheats and acolytes of Wikipedia but where's your published work in the scientific community? Or don't you think you should be held to the same level of knowledge and scientific achievement you try to hold others to? That would be yet more hypocrisy from you.
OilIsMastery said:
And for the record, I think it's absolute garbage like the rest of Wikipedia.
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For scientific articles it's pretty much as accurate as Encyclopaedia Britannica. You, like all cranks, don't like it because it's easy to find and link to information on it which deomstrates how ignorant you are and how little effort you've put into trying to learn about the area of science you denounce. Kaneda is the same. He complains that noone has provided him with information X, Y and Z, despite Google being at his fingertips and his repeated comments a 10 year old could find scientific explainations on line.

So why can't he? Or you? Or any other crank? Could it be you aren't interested in a level headed, informed analysis of a scientific model, you just copy and paste work which tells you what you want to hear and you ignore the rest?
 
Asguard said:
its really symple

"lashed sea turtles together and skied my way off the island"

Anyway you do realise that no one has taken into acount contental drift
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It hasn't drifted that far, although at some point, the oceans were lower.
 
Asguard said:
Anyway you do realise that no one has taken into acount contental drift
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No I don't realize that since McCarthy took it into account as the only logical explanation.

McCarthy, D.D., Biogeographical and Geological Evidence for a Smaller, Completely-Enclosed Pacific Basin in the Late Cretaceous, Journal of Biogeography, Volume 32, Issue 12, Pages 2161 - 2177, 2005

McCarthy, D.D., The Transpacific Zipper Effect: Disjunct Sister Taxa and Matching Geological Outlines That Link the Pacific Margins, Journal of Biogeography, Volume 30, Issue 10, Pages 1545-1561, 2003
 
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