Tuatara are reptiles endemic to New Zealand, belonging to the genus Sphenodon. Although resembling most lizards, they are part of a distinct lineage, the order Rhynchocephalia. Their name derives from the Māori language, and means "peaks on the back". The single species of tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) is the sole surviving member of its order, which originated in the Triassic period around 250 million years ago and which flourished during the Mesozoic era. Their most recent common ancestor with any other extant group is with the squamates (lizards and snakes). 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 tetrapods that also includes dinosaurs (including birds) and crocodilians.

Tuatara are greenish brown and grey, and measure up to 80 cm (31 in) from head to tail-tip and weigh up to 1.3 kg (2.9 lb) 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 also unusual in having a pronounced photoreceptive eye, the third eye, which is thought to be involved in setting circadian and seasonal cycles. 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 fossils", which has generated significant scientific debate. This term is currently in disuse 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. Researchers mapping its genome have discovered that the species has between 5 and 6 billion base pairs of DNA sequence, 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, Buller, 1877), 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 (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 (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.

 

Note:   The above text is excerpted from the Wikipedia article Tuatara, which has been released under the GNU Free Documentation License.