Researchers have proposed that Fiji's native iguanas reached the islands by travelling nearly 8,000 kilometers on mats of floating vegetation. Genetic studies indicate they share a common ancestor with desert iguanas from the American Southwest,

Iguanas rafted more than 8,000 km from North America to Fiji New genetics support the theory that iguanas voyaged to Fiji on ocean debris, in what scientists claim is the greatest known ocean journey in the history of land creatures.