What Darwin missed at Galapagos: Pink iguanas

Pink iguanas unknown to Charles Darwin during his visits to the Galapagos islands may provide evidence of species divergence far earlier than the English naturalist's famous finches, researchers said on Monday.

The findings also for the first time describe the black-striped reptiles - first seen in 1986 and only a few more times since - as a new species, said Gabriele Gentile of the University Tor Vergata in Rome, who led the study.

They add to our understanding of the evolution of species on the remote islands, which remain much as they were millions of years ago and which inspired Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.