Lizard fir ID - Manchester Museum Vivarium

KevinB

Fiji banded iguana (Brachylophus fasciatus).

13 Nov 2021

pangolin12, TinoPup, German Zoo World and 1 other person like this.

PossumRoach

according to this post it is a Lau Banded Iguana, Brachylophus fasciatus

Lau Banded Iguana - ZooChat

20 Nov 2021

pangolin12 likes this.

pangolin12

@PossumRoach that’s the same species?

20 Nov 2021

PossumRoach

@pangolin12 I thought it was since the image is from the same facility. but when I checked ztl to be extra sure I did not see the name Lau Banded iguana but did see the same scientific name. Idk where the Lau part came from but aparently this is just a Fiji iguana.

20 Nov 2021

pangolin12 likes this.

KevinB

@pangolin12 @PossumRoach I think the name "Lau Banded iguana" is more geographically correct and precise than the one I used. I believe the different Brachylophus subpopulations on different islands or island groups were originally described under the same species, but have since been split off.

20 Nov 2021

pangolin12 likes this.

Chlidonias

Basically what @KevinB says. There were formerly only two described species of extant iguanas in Fiji, the Crested Iguana B. vitiensis and the Banded Iguana B. fasciatus. In 2008 the latter was split into two species, the Lau Banded Iguana B. fasciatus of the Lau Islands and Tonga (to which it was introduced in pre-European times, and from where the type specimen had been collected) and the Fijian Banded Iguana B. bulabula of the main Fijian islands. In 2017 the iguanas on Gau Island, in the centre of the Fijian group, was split as the Gau Banded Iguana B. gau (there were no specimens available for sampling in the 2008 study).
See, for example, Molecular and morphological analysis of the critically endangered Fijian iguanas reveals cryptic diversity and a complex biogeographic history (description of B. bulabula) and https://www.researchgate.net/public...guania_Iguanidae_from_Gau_Island_Fiji_Islands (description of B. gau).

21 Nov 2021

pangolin12 and KevinB like this.

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Lizard fir ID - Manchester Museum Vivarium

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Lizard fir ID - Manchester Museum Vivarium

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