Lanzarote The island is also home to one of two surviving populations of the threatened Canarian Egyptian vulture. The official natural symbols associated with Lanzarote are "Munidopsis polymorpha" (Blind crab) and "Euphorbia balsamifera" (Tabaiba dulce). Lanzarote is believed to have been the first Canary Island to be settled. The Phoenicians may have visited or settled there, though no material evidence survives. The first known record came from Roman author Pliny the Elder in the encyclopaedia "Naturalis Historia" on an expedition to the Canary Islands. The names of the islands (then called "Insulae Fortunatae" or the "Fortunate Isles") were recorded as "Junonia"
Gallotia 2010). Finally, the clade that colonized the younger western islands was likely to have originated from Lanzarote/Fuerteventura. This western island clade diverged into two groups, all of which colonized Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, leading to 1) a medium-bodied (e.g., "G. caesaris" from El Hierro) and 2) a large bodied "giant" species (e.g., "G. simonyi" from El Hierro) on each of these islands (note that "G. intermedia" from Tenerife belongs to the "giant" group, but present-day individuals are not that large). The giant species now exist, at best, in small relict populations, while "G. auritae" may be