A new species of iguana has been found on Ovalau.
This follows detailed genetic and morphological analyses that show that there are three living kinds of Brachylophus iguanas and not two as previously thought.
Associate Professor at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, and lead author of the study, Dr Scott Keogh, said they named the newly revealed iguana species Brachylophus bulabula.
He said the new species was always in Fiji but it was thought to be the banded iguana.
"The scientific name bulabula is a doubling of bula, the Fijian word for hello, thus signifying an even more enthusiastic greeting," he said.
"This is very important for Fiji because the Fijian iguanas already feature as iconic animals of the region. They are used in advertising and tourism promotion.
"We named this very beautiful new species "bulabula" as a way of welcoming this new animal science and also to symbolise the Fijian enthusiasm welcoming newcomers."
"We first discovered this about a year ago from our genetic work on Fijian iguanas.
"We then added more samples, more data and also did morphological (anatomy) work to test for differences between the species.
"There are now three species of living Fijian iguana. The crested iguana is officially listed as critically endangered.
"The status of the Lau banded iguana and the new species Fiji banded iguana are unknown, but they are probably in trouble as well. The study we did was not just on the new species but on all Fijian iguanas.
"We sampled crested iguanas as well as banded iguanas from across the Fiji islands, and then generated DNA sequence data to test their relationships. As part of this work, we discovered that there were three species rather than two."
