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Tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') are
reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates ( lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalia ...
s
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
. Despite their close resemblance to
lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia altho ...
s, they are part of a distinct lineage, the order
Rhynchocephalia Rhynchocephalia (; ) is an order of lizard-like reptiles that includes only one living species, the tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') of New Zealand. Despite its current lack of diversity, during the Mesozoic rhynchocephalians were a diverse gr ...
. The name ''tuatara'' is derived from the
Māori language Māori (), or ('the Māori language'), also known as ('the language'), is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. Closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and ...
and means "peaks on the back". The single extant
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...
of tuatara is the only surviving member of its order. Rhynchocephalians originated during the
Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest per ...
(~250 million years ago), reached worldwide distribution and peak diversity during the
Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...
and, with the exception of tuatara, were extinct by 60 million years ago. Their closest living relatives are squamates (lizards and
snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more ...
s). For this reason, tuatara are of interest in the study of the evolution of lizards and snakes, and for the reconstruction of the appearance and habits of the earliest diapsids, a group of
amniote Amniotes are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates that comprises sauropsids (including all reptiles and birds, and extinct parareptiles and non-avian dinosaurs) and synapsids (including pelycosaurs and therapsids such as mammals). They are dis ...
tetrapod Tetrapods (; ) are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids ( reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids ( pelycosaurs, extinct t ...
s that also includes
dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s (including
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
s) and
crocodilian Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian stage) and are the closest livin ...
s. Tuatara are greenish brown and grey, and measure up to from head to tail-tip and weigh up to with a spiny crest along the back, especially pronounced in males. They have two rows of teeth in the upper jaw overlapping one row on the lower jaw, which is unique among living species. They are able to hear, although no external ear is present, and have unique features in their skeleton, some of them apparently evolutionarily retained from fish. Tuatara are sometimes referred to as "
living fossil A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living foss ...
s", which has generated significant scientific debate. This term is currently deprecated among paleontologists and evolutionary biologists. Although tuatara have preserved the morphological characteristics of their Mesozoic ancestors (240–230 million years ago), there is no evidence of a continuous fossil record to support this. The species has between 5 and 6 billion
base pair A base pair (bp) is a fundamental unit of double-stranded nucleic acids consisting of two nucleobases bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. They form the building blocks of the DNA double helix and contribute to the folded structure of both D ...
s of
DNA sequence DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. T ...
, nearly twice that of humans. The tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') has been protected by law since 1895. A second species, the Brothers Island tuatara ''S. guntheri'', , was recognised in 1989, but since 2009 it has been reclassified as a subspecies (''S.p. guntheri''). Tuatara, like many of New Zealand's native animals, are threatened by habitat loss and introduced predators, such as the
Polynesian rat The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), known to the Māori as ''kiore'', is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. The Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asia, a ...
''(Rattus exulans)''. Tuatara were extinct on the mainland, with the remaining populations confined to 32 offshore islands until the first North Island release into the heavily fenced and monitored
Karori Wildlife Sanctuary Zealandia, formerly known as the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, is a protected natural area in Wellington, New Zealand, the first urban completely fenced ecosanctuary, where the biodiversity of 225 ha (just under a square mile) of forest is being r ...
(now named "Zealandia") in 2005. During routine maintenance work at Zealandia in late 2008, a tuatara nest was uncovered, with a hatchling found the following autumn. This is thought to be the first case of tuatara successfully breeding in the wild on New Zealand's North Island in over 200 years.


Description

Tuatara are the largest reptile in New Zealand. Adult ''S. punctatus'' males measure in length and females . Tuatara are sexually dimorphic, males being larger. The San Diego Zoo even cites a length of up to . Males weigh up to , and females up to . Brother's Island tuatara are slightly smaller, weighing up to 660 g (1.3 lb). Their lungs have a single chamber with no bronchi. The tuatara's greenish brown colour matches its environment, and can change over its lifetime. Tuatara shed their skin at least once per year as adults, and three or four times a year as juveniles. Tuatara sexes differ in more than size. The spiny crest on a tuatara's back, made of triangular, soft folds of skin, is larger in males, and can be stiffened for display. The male abdomen is narrower than the female's.


Skull

The ancestor of diapsids had a
skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...
with two openings in the temporal region – upper and lower temporal fenestra on each side of the skull bounded by complete arches. The upper jaw is firmly attached to the posterior of skull. This makes for a very rigid, inflexible construction. The skull of the tuatara has a similar structure, with both upper and lower temporal openings. However, the lower temporal bar (sometimes called the cheek bone) is incomplete in some fossil Rhynchocephalia, suggesting its presence in the tuatara is a distinctive (
autapomorphic In phylogenetics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon. That is, it is found only in one taxon, but not found in any others or outgroup taxa, not even those most closely related to ...
) feature rather than one inherited from a common ancestor. The tip of the upper jaw is beak-like and separated from the remainder of the jaw by a notch. There is a single row of teeth in the lower jaw and a double row in the upper, with the bottom row fitting perfectly between the two upper rows when the mouth is closed. This specific tooth arrangement is not seen in any other reptile; although most
snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more ...
s have a double row of teeth in their upper jaws, their arrangement and function is different from the tuatara's. The structure of the jaw joint allows the lower jaw to slide forwards after it has closed between the two upper rows of teeth. This mechanism allows the jaws to shear through
chitin Chitin ( C8 H13 O5 N)n ( ) is a long-chain polymer of ''N''-acetylglucosamine, an amide derivative of glucose. Chitin is probably the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature (behind only cellulose); an estimated 1 billion tons of chit ...
and bone. Fossils indicate that the jaw mechanism began evolving at least 200 million years ago. The teeth are not replaced. As their teeth wear down, older tuatara have to switch to softer prey such as
earthworm An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. T ...
s,
larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...
e, and
slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a ...
s, and eventually have to chew their food between smooth jaw bones. It is a common misconception that tuatara lack teeth and instead have sharp projections on the jaw bone, though histology shows that they have enamel and dentine with pulp cavities. The brain of ''Sphenodon'' fills only half of the volume of its endocranium. This proportion has actually been used by paleontologists trying to estimate the volume of dinosaur brains based on fossils. However, the proportion of the tuatara endocranium occupied by its brain may not be a very good guide to the same proportion in Mesozoic dinosaurs since modern birds are surviving dinosaurs but have brains which occupy a much greater relative volume in the endocranium.


Sensory organs


Eyes

The eyes can focus independently, and are specialised with three types of photoreceptive cells, all with fine structural characteristics of retinal
cone cell Cone cells, or cones, are photoreceptor cells in the retinas of vertebrate eyes including the human eye. They respond differently to light of different wavelengths, and the combination of their responses is responsible for color vision. Cone ...
s used for both day and night vision, and a '' tapetum lucidum'' which reflects onto the retina to enhance vision in the dark. There is also a third eyelid on each eye, the
nictitating membrane The nictitating membrane (from Latin '' nictare'', to blink) is a transparent or translucent third eyelid present in some animals that can be drawn across the eye from the medial canthus to protect and moisten it while maintaining vision. All ...
. Five visual
opsin Animal opsins are G-protein-coupled receptors and a group of proteins made light-sensitive via a chromophore, typically retinal. When bound to retinal, opsins become Retinylidene proteins, but are usually still called opsins regardless. Most ...
genes are present, suggesting good
colour vision Color vision, a feature of visual perception, is an ability to perceive differences between light composed of different wavelengths (i.e., different spectral power distributions) independently of light intensity. Color perception is a part of ...
, possibly even at low light levels.


Parietal eye (third eye)

The tuatara has a third eye on the top of its head called the parietal eye. It has its own lens, a parietal plug which resembles a
cornea The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Along with the anterior chamber and lens, the cornea refracts light, accounting for approximately two-thirds of the eye's total optical ...
,
retina The retina (from la, rete "net") is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which the ...
with rod-like structures, and degenerated nerve connection to the brain. The parietal eye is visible only in hatchlings, which have a translucent patch at the top centre of the skull. After four to six months, it becomes covered with opaque scales and pigment. Its use is unknown, but it may be useful in absorbing
ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30  PHz) to 400 nm (750  THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation ...
rays to produce
vitamin D Vitamin D is a group of Lipophilicity, fat-soluble secosteroids responsible for increasing intestinal absorption of calcium, magnesium, and phosphate, and many other biological effects. In humans, the most important compounds in this group ar ...
, as well as to determine light/dark cycles, and help with
thermoregulation Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperatur ...
. Of all extant tetrapods, the parietal eye is most pronounced in the tuatara. It is part of the pineal complex, another part of which is the
pineal gland The pineal gland, conarium, or epiphysis cerebri, is a small endocrine gland in the brain of most vertebrates. The pineal gland produces melatonin, a serotonin-derived hormone which modulates sleep patterns in both circadian and seasonal cy ...
, which in tuatara secretes melatonin at night. Some
salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...
s have been shown to use their pineal bodies to perceive polarised light, and thus determine the position of the sun, even under cloud cover, aiding
navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation ...
.


Hearing

Together with
turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked t ...
s, the tuatara has the most primitive hearing organs among the amniotes. There is no eardrum and no earhole, they lack a tympanum, and the middle ear cavity is filled with loose tissue, mostly adipose (fatty) tissue. The stapes comes into contact with the quadrate (which is immovable), as well as the hyoid and squamosal. The hair cells are unspecialised, innervated by both afferent and efferent nerve fibres, and respond only to low frequencies. Though the hearing organs are poorly developed and primitive with no visible external ears, they can still show a frequency response from 100 to 800  Hz, with peak sensitivity of 40  dB at 200 Hz.


Odorant receptors

Animals that depend on the sense of smell to capture prey, escape from predators or simply interact with the environment they inhabit, usually have many odorant receptors. These receptors are expressed in the dendritic membranes of the neurons for the detection of odours. The tuatara has several hundred receptors, around 472, a number more similar to what birds have than to the large number of receptors that turtles and crocodiles may have.


Spine and ribs

The tuatara
spine Spine or spinal may refer to: Science Biology * Vertebral column, also known as the backbone * Dendritic spine, a small membranous protrusion from a neuron's dendrite * Thorns, spines, and prickles, needle-like structures in plants * Spine (zoolo ...
is made up of hourglass-shaped amphicoelous vertebrae, concave both before and behind. This is the usual condition of fish vertebrae and some amphibians, but is unique to tuatara within the amniotes. The vertebral bodies have a tiny hole through which a constricted remnant of the notochord passes; this was typical in early fossil reptiles, but lost in most other amniotes. The tuatara has gastralia, rib-like bones also called gastric or abdominal ribs, the presumed ancestral trait of diapsids. They are found in some
lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia altho ...
s, where they are mostly made of cartilage, as well as crocodiles and the tuatara, and are not attached to the spine or thoracic ribs. The true ribs are small projections, with small, hooked bones, called uncinate processes, found on the rear of each rib. This feature is also present in birds. The tuatara is the only living
tetrapod Tetrapods (; ) are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids ( reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids ( pelycosaurs, extinct t ...
with well-developed gastralia and uncinate processes. In the early tetrapods, the gastralia and ribs with uncinate processes, together with bony elements such as bony plates in the skin (osteoderms) and
clavicle The clavicle, or collarbone, is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately 6 inches (15 cm) long that serves as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on the left and one on the r ...
s (collar bone), would have formed a sort of exoskeleton around the body, protecting the belly and helping to hold in the guts and inner organs. These anatomical details most likely evolved from structures involved in locomotion even before the vertebrates ventured onto land. The gastralia may have been involved in the breathing process in early amphibians and reptiles. The pelvis and shoulder girdles are arranged differently from those of lizards, as is the case with other parts of the internal anatomy and its scales.


Tail and back

The spiny plates on the back and tail of the tuatara resemble those of a crocodile more than a lizard, but the tuatara shares with lizards the ability to break off its tail when caught by a predator, and then regenerate it. The regrowth takes a long time and differs from that of lizards. Well illustrated reports on tail regeneration in tuatara have been published by Alibardi & Meyer-Rochow.


Age determination

Currently, there are two means of determining the age of tuatara. Using microscopic inspection, hematoxylinophilic rings can be identified and counted in both the phalanges and the femur. Phalangeal hematoxylinophilic rings can be used for tuatara up to ages 12–14 years, as they cease to form around this age. Femoral rings follow a similar trend, however they are useful for tuatara up to ages 25–35 years. Around that age, femoral rings cease to form. Further research on age determination methods for tuatara is required, as tuatara have lifespans much longer than 35 years (ages up to 60 are common, and captive tuatara have lived to over 100 years). One possibility could be via examination of tooth wear and tear, as tuatara have fused sets of teeth.


Taxonomy and evolution

Tuatara, along with other now-extinct members of the order Sphenodontia, belong to the superorder
Lepidosauria The Lepidosauria (, from Greek meaning ''scaled lizards'') is a subclass or superorder of reptiles, containing the orders Squamata and Rhynchocephalia. Squamata includes snakes, lizards, and amphisbaenians. Squamata contains over 9,000 species, m ...
, the only surviving taxon within
Lepidosauromorpha Lepidosauromorpha (in PhyloCode known as ''Pan-Lepidosauria'') is a group of reptiles comprising all diapsids closer to lizards than to archosaurs (which include crocodiles and birds). The only living sub-group is the Lepidosauria, which cont ...
. Squamates and tuatara both show caudal autotomy (loss of the tail-tip when threatened), and have transverse cloacal slits. The origin of the tuatara probably lies close to the split between the Lepidosauromorpha and the
Archosauromorpha Archosauromorpha (Greek for "ruling lizard forms") is a clade of diapsid reptiles containing all reptiles more closely related to archosaurs (such as crocodilians and dinosaurs, including birds) rather than lepidosaurs (such as tuataras, lizard ...
. Though tuatara resemble lizards, the similarity is superficial, because the family has several characteristics unique among
reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates ( lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalia ...
s. The typical lizard shape is very common for the early
amniotes Amniotes are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates that comprises sauropsids (including all reptiles and birds, and extinct parareptiles and non-avian dinosaurs) and synapsids (including pelycosaurs and therapsids such as mammals). They are dis ...
; the oldest known fossil of a reptile, the '' Hylonomus'', resembles a modern lizard. Tuatara were originally classified as lizards in 1831 when the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
received a skull. The genus remained misclassified until 1867, when A.C.L.G. Günther of the British Museum noted features similar to birds, turtles, and crocodiles. He proposed the order Rhynchocephalia (meaning "beak head") for the tuatara and its fossil relatives. At one point many disparately related species were incorrectly referred to the Rhynchocephalia, resulting in what taxonomists call a " wastebasket taxon". Williston proposed the Sphenodontia to include only tuatara and their closest fossil relatives in 1925. However, Rhynchocephalia is the older name and in widespread use today. ''Sphenodon'' is derived from the Greek for "wedge" (σφήν, σφηνός/''sphenos'') and "tooth" (ὀδούς, ὀδόντος/''odontos'').Tuatara have been referred to as
living fossil A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living foss ...
s, due to a perception that they retain many basal characteristics from around the time of the squamate–rhynchocephalian split (240 MYA).
Morphometric Morphometrics (from Greek μορϕή ''morphe'', "shape, form", and -μετρία ''metria'', "measurement") or morphometry refers to the quantitative analysis of ''form'', a concept that encompasses size and shape. Morphometric analyses are c ...
analyses of variation in jaw morphology among tuatara and extinct rhynchocephalian relatives have been argued to demonstrate morphological conservatism and support for the classification of tuatara as a 'living fossil', but the reliability of these results has been criticised and debated. Paleontological research on rhynchocephalians indicates that the group has undergone a variety of changes throughout the
Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...
, and the rate of
molecular evolution Molecular evolution is the process of change in the sequence composition of cellular molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins across generations. The field of molecular evolution uses principles of evolutionary biology and population genet ...
for tuatara has been estimated to be among the fastest of any animal yet examined. However, a 2020 analysis of the tuatara genome reached the opposite conclusion: That its rate of DNA substitutions per site is actually lower than for any analysed squamate. Many of the niches occupied by lizards today were formerly held by rhynchocephalians. There was even a successful group of aquatic rhynchocephalians known as pleurosaurs, which differed markedly from living tuatara. Tuatara show cold-weather adaptations that allow them to thrive on the islands of New Zealand; these adaptations may be unique to tuatara since their sphenodontian ancestors lived in the much warmer climates of the
Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...
. For instance, ''
Palaeopleurosaurus ''Palaeopleurosaurus'' is an extinct genus of diapsid reptiles belonging to the group Sphenodontia.Dupret, V. (2004). The pleurosaurs: anatomy and phylogeny. ''Revue de Paléobiologie'', 9: 61-8/ref> ''Palaeopleurosaurus'' fossils were dis ...
'' appears to have had a much shorter lifespan compared to the modern tuatara. Ultimately most scientists consider the phrase 'living fossil' to be unhelpful and misleading. A species of sphenodontine is known from the
Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
Saint Bathans Fauna The St Bathans fauna is found in the lower Bannockburn Formation of the Manuherikia Group of Central Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. It comprises a suite of fossilised prehistoric animals from the late Early Miocene (Altonian) period ...
. Whether it is referable to ''Sphenodon'' proper is not entirely clear, but is likely to be closely related to tuatara.


Species

While there is currently considered to be only one living species of tuatara, two species were previously identified: ''Sphenodon punctatus'', or northern tuatara, and the much rarer ''Sphenodon guntheri'', or Brothers Island tuatara, which is confined to North Brother Island in Cook Strait. The specific name ''punctatus'' is
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
for "spotted", and ''guntheri'' refers to
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
-born British herpetologist
Albert Günther Albert Karl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther FRS, also Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf Günther (3 October 1830 – 1 February 1914), was a German-born British zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. Günther is ranked the second-most productive r ...
. A 2009 paper re-examined the genetic bases used to distinguish the two supposed species of tuatara, and concluded they only represent geographic variants, and only one species should be recognized. Consequently, the northern tuatara was re-classified as ''Sphenodon punctatus punctatus'' and the Brothers Island tuatara as ''Sphenodon punctatus guntheri''. Individuals from Brothers Island could also not be distinguished from other modern and fossil samples based on jaw morphology. The Brothers Island tuatara has olive brown skin with yellowish patches, while the colour of the northern tuatara ranges from olive green through grey to dark pink or brick red, often mottled, and always with white spots. In addition, the Brothers Island tuatara is considerably smaller. An extinct species of ''Sphenodon'' was identified in November 1885 by William Colenso, who was sent an incomplete
subfossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
specimen from a local coal mine. Colenso named the new species ''S. diversum''.


Genomic characteristics


Long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs)

The most abundant LINE element in the tuatara is L2 (10%). Most of them are interspersed and can remain active. The longest L2 element found is 4 kb long and 83% of the sequences had ORF2p completely intact. The CR1 element is the second most repeated (4%). Phylogenetic analysis shows that these sequences are very different from those found in other nearby species such as lizards. Finally, less than 1% are elements belonging to L1, a low percentage since these elements tend to predominate in placental mammals. Usually, the predominant LINE elements are the CR1, contrary to what has been seen in the tuatara. This suggests that perhaps the genome repeats of sauropsids were very different compared to mammals, birds and lizards.


Major histocompatibility complex elements (MHCs)

The genes of the
major histocompatibility complex The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a large locus on vertebrate DNA containing a set of closely linked polymorphic genes that code for cell surface proteins essential for the adaptive immune system. These cell surface proteins are cal ...
(MHC) are known to play roles in disease resistance, mate choice, and kin recognition in various vertebrate species. Among known vertebrate genomes, MHCs are considered one of the most polymorphic. In the tuatara, 56 MHC genes have been identified; some of which are similar to MHCs of amphibians and mammals. Most MHCs that were annotated in the tuatara genome are highly conserved, however there is large genomic rearrangement observed in distant
lepidosauria The Lepidosauria (, from Greek meaning ''scaled lizards'') is a subclass or superorder of reptiles, containing the orders Squamata and Rhynchocephalia. Squamata includes snakes, lizards, and amphisbaenians. Squamata contains over 9,000 species, m ...
lineages.


Short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs)

Many of the elements that have been analyzed are present in all
amniote Amniotes are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates that comprises sauropsids (including all reptiles and birds, and extinct parareptiles and non-avian dinosaurs) and synapsids (including pelycosaurs and therapsids such as mammals). They are dis ...
s, most are mammalian interspersed repeats or MIR, specifically the diversity of MIR subfamilies is the highest that has been studied so far in an amniote. 16 families of
SINEs Sines () is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The municipality, divided into two parishes, has around 14,214 inhabitants (2021) in an area of . Sines holds an important oil refinery and several petrochemical industries. It is also a popular ...
that were recently active have also been identified.


DNA transposon

The tuatara has 24 unique families of DNA transposons, and at least 30 subfamilies were recently active. This diversity is greater than what has been found in other amniotes and in addition, thousands of identical copies of these transposons have been analyzed, suggesting to researchers that there is recent activity.


LTR retrotransposons

Around 7,500  LTRs have been identified, including 450 
endogenous retrovirus Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are endogenous viral elements in the genome that closely resemble and can be derived from retroviruses. They are abundant in the genomes of jawed vertebrates, and they comprise up to 5–8% of the human genome ( ...
es (ERVs). Studies in other
Sauropsida Sauropsida ("lizard faces") is a clade of amniotes, broadly equivalent to the class Reptilia. Sauropsida is the sister taxon to Synapsida, the other clade of amniotes which includes mammals as its only modern representatives. Although early sy ...
have recognized a similar number but nevertheless, in the genome of the tuatara it has been found a very old clade of retrovirus known as
Spumavirus ''Spumaretrovirinae'', commonly called spumaviruses (, Latin for "foam") or foamyviruses, is a subfamily of the ''Retroviridae'' family. ICTVMaster Species List 2018a v1MSL including all taxa updates since the 2017 release. Fall 2018 (MSL #33) ...
.


Non-coding RNA

More than 8,000  non-coding RNA-related elements have been identified in the tuatara genome, of which the vast majority, about 6,900, are derived from recently active transposable elements. The rest are related to ribosomal,
spliceosomal A spliceosome is a large ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex found primarily within the nucleus of eukaryotic cells. The spliceosome is assembled from small nuclear RNAs (snRNA) and numerous proteins. Small nuclear RNA (snRNA) molecules bind to specifi ...
and signal recognition particle RNA.


Mitochondrial genome

The mitochondrial genome of the genus Sphenodon is approximately 18,000 bp in size and consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 
ribosomal RNA Ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA which is the primary component of ribosomes, essential to all cells. rRNA is a ribozyme which carries out protein synthesis in ribosomes. Ribosomal RNA is transcribed from riboso ...
and 22  transfer RNA genes.


DNA methylation

DNA methylation DNA methylation is a biological process by which methyl groups are added to the DNA molecule. Methylation can change the activity of a DNA segment without changing the sequence. When located in a gene promoter, DNA methylation typically acts ...
is a very common modification in animals and the distribution of CpG sites within genomes affects this methylation. Specifically, 81% of these CpG sites have been found to be methylated in the tuatara genome. Recent publications propose that this high level of methylation may be due to the amount of repeating elements that exist in the genome of this animal. This pattern is closer to what occurs in organisms such as zebrafish, about 78%, while in humans it is only 70%.


Behaviour

Adult tuatara are terrestrial and
nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...
reptiles, though they will often bask in the sun to warm their bodies. Hatchlings hide under logs and stones, and are diurnal, likely because adults are cannibalistic. Juveniles are typically active at night, but can be found active during the day. The juveniles' movement pattern is attributed to genetic hardwire of conspecifics for predator avoidance and thermal restrictions. Tuatara thrive in temperatures much lower than those tolerated by most reptiles, and hibernate during winter. They remain active at temperatures as low as , while temperatures over are generally fatal. The optimal body temperature for the tuatara is from , the lowest of any reptile. The body temperature of tuatara is lower than that of other reptiles, ranging from over a day, whereas most reptiles have body temperatures around . The low body temperature results in a slower
metabolism Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run ...
. Burrowing seabirds such as petrels, prions, and shearwaters share the tuatara's island habitat during the birds' nesting seasons. The tuatara use the
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
s' burrows for shelter when available, or dig their own. The seabirds'
guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...
helps to maintain invertebrate populations on which tuatara predominantly prey; including
beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
s, crickets, and
spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...
s. Their diets also consist of
frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...
s,
lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia altho ...
s, and bird's eggs and chicks. The diet of the tuatara varies seasonally and they mainly only consume fairy prions and their eggs in the summer. In total darkness no feeding attempt whatsoever was observed and the lowest light intensity at which an attempt to snatch a beetle was observed occurred under 0.0125 
lux The lux (symbol: lx) is the unit of illuminance, or luminous flux per unit area, in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to one lumen per square metre. In photometry, this is used as a measure of the intensity, as perceived by ...
. The eggs and young of seabirds that are seasonally available as food for tuatara may provide beneficial fatty acids. Tuatara of both sexes defend territories, and will threaten and eventually bite intruders. The bite can cause serious injury. Tuatara will bite when approached, and will not let go easily.


Reproduction

Tuatara reproduce very slowly, taking 10 to 20 years to reach sexual maturity. Though their reproduction rate is slow, tuatara have the fastest swimming sperm by two to four times compared to all reptiles studied earlier. Mating occurs in midsummer; females mate and lay eggs once every four years. During courtship, a male makes his skin darker, raises his crests, and parades toward the female. He slowly walks in circles around the female with stiffened legs. The female will either submit, and allow the male to mount her, or retreat to her burrow. Males do not have a penis; they have rudimentary hemipenes; meaning that
intromittent organ An intromittent organ is any external organ of a male organism that is specialized to deliver sperm during copulation. Intromittent organs are found most often in terrestrial species, as most non-mammalian aquatic species fertilize their eggs e ...
s are used to deliver sperm to the female during copulation. They reproduce by the male lifting the tail of the female and placing his vent over hers. This process is sometimes referred to as a "cloacal kiss". The
sperm Sperm is the male reproductive cell, or gamete, in anisogamous forms of sexual reproduction (forms in which there is a larger, female reproductive cell and a smaller, male one). Animals produce motile sperm with a tail known as a flagellum, ...
is then transferred into the female, much like the mating process in birds. Along with birds, the tuatara is one of the few members of amniota to have lost the ancestral penis. Tuatara eggs have a soft, parchment-like 0.2 mm thick shell that consists of calcite crystals embedded in a matrix of fibrous layers. It takes the females between one and three years to provide eggs with yolk, and up to seven months to form the shell. It then takes between 12 and 15 months from copulation to hatching. This means reproduction occurs at two- to five-year intervals, the slowest in any reptile. Wild tuatara are known to be still reproducing at about 60 years of age; "Henry", a male tuatara at Southland Museum in
Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse ...
, New Zealand, became a father (possibly for the first time) on 23 January 2009, at age 111, with an 80 year-old female. The sex of a hatchling depends on the temperature of the egg, with warmer eggs tending to produce male tuatara, and cooler eggs producing females. Eggs incubated at have an equal chance of being male or female. However, at , 80% are likely to be males, and at , 80% are likely to be females; at all hatchlings will be females. Some evidence indicates sex determination in tuatara is determined by both genetic and environmental factors. Tuatara probably have the slowest growth rates of any reptile, continuing to grow larger for the first 35 years of their lives. The average lifespan is about 60 years, but they can live to be well over 100 years old; tuatara could be the reptile with the second longest lifespan after tortoises. Some experts believe that captive tuatara could live as long as 200 years. This may be related to genes that offer protection against reactive oxygen species. The tuatara genome has 26 genes that encode selenoproteins and 4 
selenocysteine Selenocysteine (symbol Sec or U, in older publications also as Se-Cys) is the 21st proteinogenic amino acid. Selenoproteins contain selenocysteine residues. Selenocysteine is an analogue of the more common cysteine with selenium in place of the ...
-specific
tRNA Transfer RNA (abbreviated tRNA and formerly referred to as sRNA, for soluble RNA) is an adaptor molecule composed of RNA, typically 76 to 90 nucleotides in length (in eukaryotes), that serves as the physical link between the mRNA and the amino ...
genes. In humans, selenoproteins have a function of antioxidation, redox regulation and synthesis of thyroid hormones. It is not fully demonstrated, but these genes may be related to the longevity of this animal or may have emerged as a result of the low levels of selenium and other trace elements in the New Zealand terrestrial systems.


Conservation

Tuatara are absolutely protected under New Zealand's Wildlife Act 1953. The species is also listed under Appendix I of the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of intern ...
(CITES) meaning commercial international trade in wild sourced specimens is prohibited and all other international trade (including in parts and derivatives) is regulated by the CITES permit system.


Distribution and threats

Tuatara were once widespread on New Zealand's main North and South Islands, where
subfossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
remains have been found in sand dunes, caves, and Māori
midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and eco ...
s. Wiped out from the main islands before European settlement, they were long confined to 32 offshore islands free of mammals. The islands are difficult to get to, and are colonised by few animal species, indicating that some animals absent from these islands may have caused tuatara to disappear from the mainland. However, ''kiore'' (
Polynesian rat The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), known to the Māori as ''kiore'', is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. The Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asia, a ...
s) had recently become established on several of the islands, and tuatara were persisting, but not breeding, on these islands. Additionally, tuatara were much rarer on the rat-inhabited islands. Prior to conservation work, 25% of the distinct tuatara populations had become extinct in the past century. The recent discovery of a tuatara hatchling on the mainland indicates that attempts to re-establish a breeding population on the New Zealand mainland have had some success. The total population of tuatara is estimated to be between 60,000 and 100,000.


Climate Change

Tuataras have temperature-dependent sex determination meaning that the temperature of the egg determines the sex of the animal. For tuataras, lower egg incubation temperatures lead to males while higher temperatures lead to females. Since global temperatures are increasing faster than ever, researchers are worried that climate change is skewing the male to female ratio of tuataras and that in a few decades tuatara offspring populations will be all male.


Eradication of rats

Tuatara were removed from Stanley,
Red Mercury Red mercury is purportedly a substance of uncertain composition used in the creation of nuclear weapons, as well as other weapons systems. Because of the great secrecy surrounding the development and manufacturing of nuclear weapons, there is no ...
and Cuvier Islands in 1990 and 1991, and maintained in captivity to allow Polynesian rats to be eradicated on those islands. All three populations bred in captivity, and after successful eradication of the rats, all individuals, including the new juveniles, were returned to their islands of origin. In the 1991–92 season, Little Barrier Island was found to hold only eight tuatara, which were taken into '' in situ'' captivity, where females produced 42 eggs, which were incubated at Victoria University. The resulting offspring were subsequently held in an enclosure on the island, then released into the wild in 2006 after rats were eradicated there. In the Hen and Chicken Islands, Polynesian rats were eradicated on Whatupuke in 1993, Lady Alice Island in 1994, and Coppermine Island in 1997. Following this program, juveniles have once again been seen on the latter three islands. In contrast, rats persist on Hen Island of the same group, and no juvenile tuatara have been seen there as of 2001. In the
Alderman Islands The Aldermen Islands are a small group of rocky islets to the southeast of Mercury Bay in the North Island of New Zealand. They are located off the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, east of the mouth of the Tairua River. The islands were na ...
, Middle Chain Island holds no tuatara, but it is considered possible for rats to swim between Middle Chain and other islands that do hold tuatara, and the rats were eradicated in 1992 to prevent this. Another rodent eradication was carried out on the Rangitoto Islands east of D'Urville Island, to prepare for the release of 432 Cook Strait tuatara juveniles in 2004, which were being raised at Victoria University as of 2001.


Brothers Island tuatara

''Sphenodon punctatus guntheri'' is present naturally on one small island with a population of approximately 400. In 1995, 50 juvenile and 18 adult Brothers Island tuatara were moved to Titi Island in Cook Strait, and their establishment monitored. Two years later, more than half of the animals had been seen again and of those all but one had gained weight. In 1998, 34 juveniles from captive breeding and 20 wild-caught adults were similarly transferred to
Matiu/Somes Island Matiu / Somes Island is the largest of three islands in the northern half of Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. It is the former site of military and quarantine internments, as well as animal quarantine until 1995. Since 1995 it has been designat ...
, a more publicly accessible location in Wellington Harbour. The captive juveniles were from induced layings from wild females. In late October 2007, 50 tuatara collected as eggs from North Brother Island and hatched at Victoria University were being released onto
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...
in the outer Marlborough Sounds. The animals had been cared for at Wellington Zoo for the previous five years and had been kept in secret in a specially built enclosure at the zoo, off display. There is another out of country population of Brothers Island tuatara that was given to the
San Diego Zoological Society San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is a not-for-profit organization headquartered in San Diego that operates the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Founded in 1916 as the Zoological Society of San Diego under the leadership of Harry ...
and is housed off-display at the San Diego Zoo facility in Balboa. No successful reproductive efforts have been reported yet.


Northern tuatara

''S. punctatus punctatus'' naturally occurs on 29 islands, and its population is estimated to be over 60,000 individuals. In 1996, 32 adult northern tuatara were moved from
Moutoki Island Rurima Island is a small island in the Bay of Plenty, off New Zealand's North Island. The island is the largest of the Rurima Rocks, with the smaller Moutoki and Tokata Islands lying about east and west respectively. Located approximately west ...
to Moutohora. The carrying capacity of Moutohora is estimated at 8,500 individuals, and the island could allow public viewing of wild tuatara. In 2003, 60 northern tuatara were introduced to Tiritiri Matangi Island from Middle Island in the Mercury group. They are occasionally seen sunbathing by visitors to the island. A mainland release of ''S.p. punctatus'' occurred in 2005 in the heavily fenced and monitored Karori Sanctuary. The second mainland release took place in October 2007, when a further 130 were transferred from Stephens Island to the Karori Sanctuary. In early 2009, the first recorded wild-born offspring were observed.


Captive breeding

The first successful breeding of tuatara in captivity is believed to have achieved by Sir
Algernon Thomas Sir Algernon Phillips Withiel Thomas (3 June 1857 – 28 December 1937) was a New Zealand university professor, geologist, biologist and educationalist. He was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England in 1857 and died in Auckland, New Zealand in 19 ...
at either his University offices or residence in Symonds Street in the late 1880s or his new home, Trewithiel, in Mount Eden in the early 1890s. Several tuatara breeding programmes are active in New Zealand. Southland Museum and Art Gallery in
Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse ...
was the first institution to have a tuatara breeding programme; starting in 1986 they bred ''S. punctatus'' and have focused on ''S. guntheri'' more recently. Hamilton Zoo, Auckland Zoo and
Wellington Zoo Wellington Zoo is a zoo in the green belt of Wellington, New Zealand. History Wellington Zoo was opened in 1906 by the late Prime Minister Richard Seddon after he was given a young lion – later named King Dick – by the Bostock and Womb ...
also breed tuatara for release into the wild. At Auckland Zoo in the 1990s it was discovered that tuatara have temperature-dependent sex determination. The
Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well kn ...
maintains a research programme into the captive breeding of tuatara, and the Pukaha / Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre keeps a pair and a juvenile. The WildNZ Trust has a tuatara breeding enclosure at Ruawai. One notable captive breeding success story took place in January 2009, when all 11 eggs belonging to 110 year-old tuatara Henry and 80 year-old tuatara Mildred hatched. This story is especially remarkable as Henry required surgery to remove a cancerous tumour in order to successfully breed. In January 2016,
Chester Zoo Chester Zoo is a zoo at Upton-by-Chester, Cheshire, England. Chester Zoo was opened in 1931 by George Mottershead and his family. It is one of the UK's largest zoos at . The zoo has a total land holding of approximately . Chester Zoo is opera ...
, England, announced that they succeeded in breeding the tuatara in captivity for the first time outside its homeland.


Cultural significance

Tuatara feature in a number of indigenous legends, and are held as ''ariki'' (God forms). Tuatara are regarded as the messengers of Whiro, the god of death and disaster, and Māori women are forbidden to eat them. Tuatara also indicate ''tapu'' (the borders of what is sacred and restricted), beyond which there is ''mana'', meaning there could be serious consequences if that boundary is crossed. Māori women would sometimes tattoo images of lizards, some of which may represent tuatara, near their genitals. Today, tuatara are regarded as a '' taonga'' (special treasure) along with being viewed as the kaitiaki (guardian) of knowledge. The tuatara was featured on one side of the
New Zealand five-cent coin The New Zealand five-cent coin was the lowest denomination coin of the New Zealand dollar from 1990 to 2006. The five-cent coin was introduced when the New Zealand dollar was introduced on 10 July 1967, replacing the New Zealand sixpence coin. On ...
, which was phased out in October 2006. ''Tuatara'' was also the name of the Journal of the Biological Society of Victoria University College and subsequently
Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well kn ...
, published from 1947 until 1993. It has now been digitised by the
New Zealand Electronic Text Centre The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection (NZETC; mi, Te Pūhikotuhi o Aotearoa) is a freely accessible online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials that are held by the Victoria University of Wellington Libr ...
, also at Victoria.


In popular culture

* A tuatara named "Tua" is prominently featured in the 2017 novel '' Turtles All the Way Down'' by John Green. * The tuatara was the inspiration for a DC Comics superhero, also with a third eye, called Tuatara, member of the
Global Guardians The Global Guardians is a team of DC Comics superheroes whose members hail from countries around the world. The concept originated in the ''Super Friends'' Saturday morning cartoon, which aired after the comics stories in ''Super Friends'' #7-9, ...
. * There is a brand of New Zealand craft beer named after the Tuatara which particularly references the third eye in its advertising. * The Tuatara hypercar, designed and manufactured by SSC North America in the Tri-Cities, Washington, is named after the reptile, noting its fast evolving DNA and "peaks on the back" as inspiration in the creation of the car. * The
Auckland Tuatara The Auckland Tuatara is a professional baseball team in the Australian Baseball League based in Auckland, New Zealand. They are the only team from New Zealand to compete in the ABL, and one of two expansion teams that entered the league in the ...
, one of two expansion teams for the 2018–2019 Australian Baseball League season, chose the tuatara name to celebrate the resilience of the ancient reptiles, and to raise awareness of New Zealand's commitment to species protection. * Tuatara is a music band from Seattle named after the animal. * Tuatara Day is 2 May to recognise the day that the tuatara was first recognised not to be a lizard. * In the season one finale of Abbott Elementary an old tuatara named Duster is used to represent themes of aging and transition.


See also

* Tuataric acid *
Tuatara tick Tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') are reptiles endemic to New Zealand. Despite their close resemblance to lizards, they are part of a distinct lineage, the order Rhynchocephalia. The name ''tuatara'' is derived from the Māori language ...


References


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q163283 Endemic fauna of New Zealand Extant Late Pleistocene first appearances Māori culture Reptiles of New Zealand Sphenodontia Taxa named by John Edward Gray Endemic reptiles of New Zealand