A subset of North American iguanas likely landed on an isolated group of South Pacific islands about 34 million years ago — having rafted some 5,000 miles from the West Coast of the faraway continent, a new study has found.

Their epic journey to what is now Fiji marks the longest known transoceanic expansion of any terrestrial vertebrate species, according to the study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Overwater travel for both animals and plants isn't unique in and of itself, as this is the primary way in which newly formed islands have become populated by plants and animals, the study authors noted.

Such travel has often led to the evolution of new species and ecosystems — a phenomenon that has fascinated scientists since the time of Charles Darwin.

Iguanas themselves are also known for their propensity to float elsewhere and are often found rafting around the Caribbean aboard plant life, the........

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