The Red Notebook

BBC: Pink iguana rewrites family tree

A spectacular pink type of Galapagos iguana promises to rewrite the family’s evolutionary history in the islands.

Rosada was missed by Charles Darwin during his 1835 visit, but appears to indicate the earliest known divergence of land animals in the archipelago.

Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers say rosada split from other land iguanas about 5.7 million years ago.

A wonderful discovery, with publication timed nicely for the Darwin bicentenary celebrations. A new type of iguana is a remarkable find. Especially a pink one.

But why do so many news stories about this find say that Darwin ‘missed’ the pink igunanas? They are only found on a small volcano that he didn’t even visit. If Darwin missed them, then so did the Archbishop of Canterbury and Abraham Lincoln.

New Scientist: New hope for Galapagos’ ‘Lonesome George’

The rarest living creature – a giant tortoise thought to be the last of his kind – may not be alone after all, say geneticists. The revelation gives new hope to “Lonesome George” as conservationists consider a proposal to get him to breed in captivity…

[Jeff] Powell [of Yale University] and colleagues analysed the DNA of 27 tortoises from Wolf Volcano on Isabela. One of these appears to be a cross between a Pinta male and an Isabela female, they discovered. Unfortunately, it is also male. But its mere existence raises the intriguing possibility there might be a female carrying Pinta genes that would make a suitable match for Lonesome George.

I fear this is a false hope, but it is fascinating how modern genetic techniques can reveal complex species relationships like this.