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What are tuataras? Where are...

22 15:10:56

Question
What are tuataras? Where are they found? What is unusual about these reptiles? How does habitat fragmentation effect reptiles?

                  Thanks, Tiffany Maloney

Answer
To: Tiffany Maloney

   Tuataras are Often called " Living Fossils" but recent research suggests they have much more advanced features than their nearest extinct relatives.Tuataras are active mostly at night when they come out to hunt. They spend the day in burrows or if it is sunny. Basking at the burrow entrance. There are no ponds or streams on the islands where the Tuataras live,so after dry spells they are particularly active on rainy nightswhen they may often be found soaking in puddles. For hunting, Tuataras usually adopt a sit-and-wait strategy. When small prey come close they are first seized with the tongue. Larger animals are impaled on the tuatara's sharp teeth.

Length:
  Males to 2 feet; Females to 1 1/2 feet.
Diet: Insects, snails, and earthworms, they also eat lizards and small birds and their eggs.

Habiat:
  They live on islands in burrows that have been built by the petrels, which share their habitat. They excavate their own. Some of the islands are founded, others have stunted vegetation.

Tuataras are gray, olive green, or occasinally rusty red. They resemble lizards, they are quite different. They have no external ears, their teeth are fused to the jaw and they have two. Tuataras have a "third eye," part of an organ on top of the brain. It has a lens, retina, and nerve connection to the brain, but early in the growth of the tuataras it is covered by opaque scales. Many lizards also have a third eye that is involved in regulating temperature, But it is not known what function,if any, a tuataras's thrid eye performs.

 Tuataras are found on 30 small islands off the coast of the North Island of New Zealand.


        I hope this help you out on this information I give to you to know more about the Tuataras Lizard ( Rhynchocephalia ).


                 Good Luck!

            Sincerely,
           Cece Ericson
( American Inter. Rattlesnake Museum Of Albuquerque, NM And New Mexico Wildlife Rescue Clinic Of Albuquerque ).