Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This refers to a thread posted on Sep 11 2007 where it was discussed that Mona DR iguanas are the same, allegedly with DNA evidence.I have been going to Mona for fifteen years and keep DR Rhinos. I can say beyond a doubt that, morphologically, these two iguanas are different. DNA sampling at a not-so-deep level may not show the differences. On Mona, the heads are longer, horns spikier, eyes set at a different angle and three scales on the side of the face are missing. Also they have been isolated for a very long time.

That would be cool if they were different, do you have any pictures we could look at?

Here's a couple. More later

more as promised

.

Rhinoman - Enjoyed looking at the pictures. I looked through a few of my pictures and was unfortunately unable to make the same distinction. Here are a few zoom in shots targeting the side scales that are missing on your mona photos. The fotos were taken at 3 differed locations in the DR.

The lack of side scales is a morph, as is the below multihorned. Some other morphs observed include big horns, no horns, orange horns and blue horns.

are those morphs locally related or random between the different colonies?
Thanks
Stef

Random pictures taken in 3 different locations where some of the iguanas did, and others did not have the side scales on the face.

Agreed - individual variation. Also, red horns mean nothing in terms of different species. I have also been to Mona and to the DR; I also kept one of the only Monas in captivity. I cannot tell the difference between the two just by looking at them, and neither can many other researchers.

Rhinoman, thanks for posting the cool pictures. Regarding the side face scales, I cannot find much distinction between the below DR picture and some of the mona igs on this link.

http://images.cyclura.com/cgi-bin/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Iguanas/rock/mona_island&image=stejnegeri.jpg&img=&tt=

Link