Millions of years ago, a group of South American iguanas got stranded on a raft of floating vegetation,

which was swept out into the ocean.

This situation was likely caused by a hurricane or some other natural disaster capable of uprooting trees and sweeping them into the water.

It is likely that the drowning iguanas

heaved themselves upon the trees

for safety from the rough waters.

Now, normally this circumstance

would be an unfortunate one.

The unlucky iguanas would be in that moment

selected out of the gene pool.

They would starve or die from exposure or drown, and they'd be

among the uncounted billions of animals whose genes don't survive into the next generation.

But this group of iguanas had a different destiny, a rather marvelous one. They would be lucky, unbelievably lucky.

They would happen to wash ashore on the volcanic islands of the Galapagos, a small corner of the

earth blessed with perfect conditions to sustain animal life.

Not only would their genes survive, but they would thrive, and their descendants would evolve into an organism so unique it boggles the imagination.

They would become the Marine Aguana. Amblerincus Christatus.

I'm Mackin. This is species.

Welcome to the show.

Now, I should note that the rafting theory is just that, theoretical.

Nobody was there to document the iguana's journey,

but there's no other tenable explanation at the moment, and it would have been in elegant for me to put a caveat in the middle of my story.

...