Until 2008, only two species of iguana were known to exist in the Fijian islands, but during that year a research paper was published in which detailed genetic and morphological studies revealed that a third species had been hiding in plain sight there. This new species, currently lacking a common name, was formally dubbed Brachylophus bulabula ("bulabula" is the Fijian word for "healthy" or "flourishing"). It was discovered in the central regions of Fiji.The Fijian iguanas, a trio of living species belonging to their own unique genus, Brachylophus, are a zoogeographical paradox, because their closest relatives all exist thousands of km away in South America, and there is no clue to indicate how they came to exist in Pacific Ocean islands. A fourth, giant species, Gibbons's iguana B. gibbonsi, existed on some of the nearby Tongan islands in prehistoric times, but it became extinct as a result of predation following the arrival of humans and their domestic livestock.