Tuatara

Sphenodon punctatus

Summary 2

The tuatara is a reptile that is endemic to New Zealand and which, though it resembles most lizards, is part of a distinct lineage, order Rhynchocephalia. The two species of tuatara are the only surviving members of its order, which flourished around 200 million years ago. Their most recent common ancestor with any other extant group is with the squamates (lizards and snakes). For this reason, tuatara are of great interest in the study of the...

Sources and Credits

  1. anonymous, no known copyright restrictions (public domain), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tuatara.jpg
  2. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphenodon_punctatus

More Info

iNaturalist NZ Map