Growing up on Key Biscayne in the 1970s, Paul Zuccarini had no idea the commonplace green iguanas he loved to chase were as exotic as the tourists that descended every winter.

They were like “prehistoric beasts,” said Zuccarini, who would release his prize captures back into the wild. “If we caught a three- to five-foot iguana, it was like catching a dinosaur.”

Except these dinosaurs have gone the opposite of extinct. Since they first appeared in the 1960s, green iguanas have become as ubiquitous in South Florida as sunshine. They outnumber many native reptiles and thrive along cultivated urban coasts that provide a feast-able landscape of bougainvillea and hibiscus. Just about every golf course, park and retention pond offers perfect habitat for herds of bright green and orange lizards.