page_title: Saban black iguana
section_title: Distribution
hierarchical_section_title: Saban black iguana / Distribution
caption_attribution_description: Español: Iguana iguana en Zoologico de Barquisimeto
context_page_description: The Saban black iguana is a species of iguana thought to be endemic to the islands of Saba and Montserrat, although external evidence indicates that it may be distributed in other parts of the Caribbean. It was described in 2020.
context_section_description: As currently defined, the species displays a very unusual disjunct distribution with members being found on Montserrat and Saba, but nowhere else in the Caribbean, although they may have once occurred on Redonda. Due to this, it has been hypothesized that the species may have evolved on one of these locations and then been introduced to the other. However, there are near-indistinguishable melanistic iguanas known from the Virgin Islands and the island of Vieques that, based on preliminary genetic data, may also belong to I. melanoderma. Melanistic iguanas are also known from northern Venezuela, including several coastal islets as well as the vicinity of Cumaná, and these also genetically group with I. melanoderma specimens from Montserrat and Saba. While not independently confirmed, this indicates that I. melanoderma may have a much larger distribution than just two islands.
  It is theorized that coastal Venezuela is the source population for I. melanoderma and also where it diverged from other iguanas. Three dispersal events have been proposed; one from coastal Venezuela to either Saba or Montserrat (with Montserrat being more likely if the dispersal was natural), a second pre-Columbian disperal from one of these two islands to the other, and a third to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. These dispersal events may have happened from natural dispersals, transport and introduction by Amerindians and/or European colonists, or both.
caption: A member of the putative Venezuelan population, where the species may have originated
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