Tuatara Facts PDF

This is a tuatara. Tuatara have scaly skin that is green, brown, grey or sometimes rusty red, with a row of spines along their backs. You may think they look like some type of lizard, but guess what? Tuatara are not lizards! **What is a tuatara?** Although most people mistake them for lizards, tua...

This is a tuatara. Tuatara have scaly skin that is green, brown, grey or sometimes rusty red, with a row of spines along their backs. You may think they look like some type of lizard, but guess what? Tuatara are not lizards! **What is a tuatara?** Although most people mistake them for lizards, tuatara are not lizards. In fact, they are not even closely related to lizards. Tuatara belong to a completely separate group of reptiles known as *rhynchocephalians* (pronounced rink-o-seff-ay-lee-ans). **Rhyncho ... what?** Rhynchocephalians are an ancient group of reptiles that are different from lizards and snakes, different from crocodiles and alligators, and different from turtles and tortoises. They're believed to have branched off from their closest relatives (lizards and snakes) around 250 million years ago. In the world today, there are thousands of species of snakes and lizards, around twenty-five species of crocodiles and alligators, more than three hundred species of turtles and tortoises, and guess how many rhynocecephalians? Would you believe there is only ONE? The tuatara! **Take a trip to the Triassic!** Imagine the world millions of years ago, back in the time when dinosaurs roamed. During the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, rhynchocephalians lived almost everywhere on earth, alongside dinosaurs like the stegosaurus, allosaurus and diplodocus. At least forty species of rhynchocephalians existed then and they lived on almost every continent. There were many different types---some as small as skinks, others over a metre long. Some lived in water, others on land. There were fish hunters, bug eaters and plant munchers. Scientists know this from studying fossils. All the time, new fossils are being found. Extinct rhynchocephalian fossils have been found in Europe, North, Central and South America, China, India and Africa. This means undescribed rhynchocephalians---ones that scientists have never seen before---are still being uncovered. **Last of its kind** At the end of the Jurassic period, around 145 million years ago, rhynchocephalian numbers began to dwindle. By 66 million years ago only a handful of species existed, all in the southern hemisphere. After that, rhynchocephalians completely disappear from the fossil record. They died out in every country, all over the planet ... except a single species, that lived a long way away from anywhere else. This sole surviving rhynchocephalian is none other than the tuatara! So, if you ever see a tuatara in real life, take a deep breath---what you are looking at is not a lizard; it's way more special! **Back to the present** In the wild, tuatara are only found in one place: Aotearoa, New Zealand. Tuatara were named by Māori, the first people to arrive in New Zealand. Tuatara means 'spiny back'. Other Māori names for tuatara are ngārara and kārara. Because tuatara is a Māori word, it is incorrect to put an 's' on the end for plurals. You would say one tuatara, five tuatara, many tuatara. These days, tuatara are considered a *taonga* which means a 'treasure'. **What do tuatara eat?** Adult tuatara are mostly nocturnal, which means they hunt for their food at night. They eat worms, beetles, *wētā*\*, snails, spiders, slugs, lizards, birds' eggs and chicks and sometimes baby tuatara! **Starting from an egg** Female tuatara lay their eggs in spring, around every four years. Each female spends several days digging an underground nest. Then she lays a clutch of 6-12 eggs before filling the hole up with soil. The eggs hatch roughly a year later, usually one at a time. Hatchlings are about as long as your finger. They wiggle their way up through the dirt to the surface, a journey which takes 8-9 hours. The young are active during the day instead of at night. This keeps them safe from grown tuatara who have been known to eat baby tuatara. Tuatara reach maturity at 10 to 15 years old, but they keep growing until they are around 30 years old. Recent research has shown that tuatara live for more than a hundred and thirty years! **Nearly wiped out again** Before humans reached Aotearoa, New Zealand, tuatara lived all over the country. Back then, the only land mammals were native bats, and the only natural predators of tuatara were large birds. Unfortunately, when people arrived, they brought predators that ate tuatara eggs and hatchlings and competed with tuatara for food. By 1895, tuatara had been driven to the brink of extinction by introduced predators such as rats, cats, pigs, dogs and stoats. Today, thanks to conservation efforts, tuatara thrive on predator-free off-shore islands and also in sanctuaries on the mainland. **Fun facts about tuatara** - The spines on a tuatara's back look sharp, but they are soft to touch. - Tuatara grow to about half a metre long and weigh up to 1.5 kilograms. - Males are larger than females and have a more prominent crest of spines. - They have a third eye---it's not a true eye but a light-sensing organ that sticks through the top of their skulls. - Tuatara have three rows of teeth: two rows on their upper jaw and one row on their lower jaw. No lizard has teeth like this.