In this video, a marine iguana gets serious with its search for sustenance, diving over and over to the sea bottom off Cabo Marshall in the Galapagos Islands for some grub. The video was shot by Steve Winkworth.
Despite the aggressive nature of the “hunting” prowess on display, the iguana is actually chowing down on algae and seaweed. These fierce-looking things are actually gentle herbivores. For example, to protect its “harem,” a male iguana warns off an intruder by bobbing its head as a show of strength—and if necessary, the two iguanas will go forehead-to-forehead, pushing each other back and forth. Whoever wins, wins. The loser just goes away—no fuss, no muss.
Charles Darwin described marine iguanas as “hideous-looking,” and thought of them as the “most disgusting, clumsy lizard.” Hate to argue with the father of evolution, but they look pretty cool to us—downright impressive. The iguana in the video is human-sized, at least in length, measuring about 6 feet long.
Scientists suspect that marine iguanas evolved from terrestrial South American iguanas that drifted out to sea millions of years ago. They actually live on land, but can spend up to an hour underwater. Marine iguanas inhabit each of the islands in the Galapagos archipelago, though there is some variation in the species from island to island.
