The study in
PLOS ONE also uncovers new clues to the geologic and natural history of the Bahamas, where the burrow was found.
The fossilized burrow dates back to the Late Pleistocene Epoch, about 115,000 years ago, and is located on the island of San Salvador—best known as the likely spot where Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in his 1492 voyage.
“San Salvador is one of the outer-most islands in the Bahamas chain and really isolated,” says Anthony Martin, a professor in Emory University’s environmental sciences department and senior author of the paper. “It’s a mystery how and when the modern-day San Salvadoran rock iguanas arrived there. Today, they are among the rarest lizards in the world, with only a few hundred of them left.”