Tuatara Sphenodon punctatus

Despite its outward resemblance to the lizard family, the Tuatara is a "living fossil", the only living member of the order Rhynchocephalia, related to or preceeding dinosaurs. Endemic to New Zealand, it has attributes of lizard, bird, crocodile and turtle features in its primitive anatomy.

It has a third, light-sensitive, "eye", two rows of upper "teeth" and one lower which are protusions of jawbone, a primitive heart and one lung chamber with no bronchial tubes.

Once classified as two species, both from islands in the north: the rare Northern Tuatara above and the even rarer (similar-looking) Brother's Island species, Sphenodon guntheri, are now considered as one species again with regional variants. Tuatara grow and mature slowly, up to 2 feet in length, and typically live over 60 years in the wild and well over 100 years in captivity.

Primarily nocturnal, they bask during the day. Terrestrial, they climb well. It is said they can hold their breath for up to 3 hours. Like much of New Zealand's land-dwelling fauna, Tuatara were decimated by rats and other introduced mammals. There have been several captive breeding programmes with reintroduction to island sanctuaries after eradication of rats.