|
The Cuban rock iguana (''Cyclura nubila''), also known as the Cuban ground iguana or Cuban iguana,〔 is a species of lizard of the iguana family. It is the largest of the West Indian rock iguanas (genus ''Cyclura''), one of the most endangered groups of lizards. This herbivorous species with red eyes, a thick tail, and spiked jowls is one of the largest lizards in the Caribbean. The Cuban iguana is distributed throughout the rocky southern coastal areas of mainland Cuba and its surrounding islets with a feral population thriving on Isla Magueyes, Puerto Rico. A subspecies is found on the Cayman Islands of Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Females guard their nest sites and often nest in sites excavated by Cuban crocodiles. As a defense measure, the Cuban iguana often makes its home within or near prickly-pear cacti. Although the wild population is in decline because of predation by feral animals and habitat loss caused by human agricultural development, the numbers of iguanas have been bolstered as a result of captive-breeding and other conservation programs. ''Cyclura nubila'' has been used to study evolution and animal communication, and its captive-breeding program has been a model for other endangered lizards in the Caribbean. ==Taxonomy== The Cuban rock iguana's generic name ''Cyclura'' is derived from the Ancient Greek ''cyclos'' (κύκλος) meaning "circular" and ''ourá'' (οὐρά) meaning "tail", after the thick-ringed tail characteristic of all ''Cyclura''. John Edward Gray, the British zoologist who first described the species in 1831 as ''Iguana (Cyclura) nubila'' or "Clouded Guana", gave it the specific name ''nubila'', Latin for "cloudy". The closest relatives of ''Cyclura nubila'' are the Grand Cayman blue iguana (''Cyclura lewisi'') and the Northern Bahamian rock iguana (''Cyclura cychlura''); phylogenetic analysis indicates that these three species diverged from a common ancestor three million years ago. ''Cyclura nubila'' was previously considered to have three subspecies, the Grand Cayman blue iguana (termed ''Cyclura nubila lewisi''), the Lesser Caymans iguana (''Cyclura nubila caymanensis''), and the nominate Cuban subspecies (''Cyclura nubila nubila'').〔 This classification was revised after later mitochondrial DNA analysis and research into the scalation patterns on the heads of Caribbean iguanid lizards (these patterns are unique by species and act as a "fingerprint" of sorts).〔〔〔 The Grand Cayman blue iguana is now recognized as a separate species.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cyclura nubila」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|