Sphenodon punctatus
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REPTILIA: RHYNCHOCEPHALIA: SPHENODONTIDAE: Sphenodon

TUATARA

 

A young tuatara photographed at Aquarium Berlin in 1991. Captives are kept in air-conditioned terraria.
Sphenodon punctatus (Gray, 1842)
Tuatara (both singular & plural of 
the Maori term, "spiny back.")

Text & photos by Dr. Robert Sprackland, with 
data contributed by Dr. Charles Daugherty.
Range: Small islands off New Zealand's North Island and between North and South Islands.
Diagnosis: A lizard-like creature with small, pebble-like head scales, a vertical pupil, warty greenish skin, and a feeble row of vertebral spines that extends from the nape to the tail tip. The skull has a lower temporal arch of bone that fixes firmly to the quadrate. There is no copulatory organ. Cloaca transverse.
Description:
Natural History: These small reptiles thrive at much lower temperatures than other reptiles, and captives are housed in air-conditioned facilities. In nature, tuatara live in burrows excavated by birds and rodents, and feed upon the young of their hosts. Other prey includes large insects and eggs.

Reproduction: Tuatara lay eggs in alternate years, and eggs may take 13 months to incubate.
Type specimen: BMNH
Literature:  Click on a book to order a copy

Cree, Alison and Charles Daugherty. 1990. Tuatara sheds its fossil image. New Scientist 1739: 22-26.

Cree, Alison, Charles Daugherty and Jennifer Hay. 1995. Reproduction of a rare New Zealand reptile, the tuatara Sphenodon punctatus, on rat-free and rat-inhabited islands. Conservation Biology 9(2): 373-383.

Cree, Alison, Michael Thompson and Charles Daugherty. 1995. Tuatara sex determination. Nature 375, 15 June.

Daugherty, Charles and Alison Cree. 1990. Tuatara--a survivor from the dinosaur age. New Zealand Geographic 6: 66-86.

Daugherty, C., A. Cree, J. Hay and M. Thompson. 1990. Neglected taxonomy and continuing extinctions of tuatara (Sphenodon). Nature 347(6289): 177-179.

Gill, Brian. 1986. Collins Handguide to the frogs and reptiles of New Zealand. Wm. Collins. ISBN: 0-00-217570-3.

Gray, John and Albert Günther. (1995). The lizards of Australia and New Zealand. SSAR Reprint. ISBN: 0-916984-34-6.

Newman, Don. 1987. Tuatara. John McIndoe. ISBN: 0-86868-098-2.

Pickard, C. and D. Towns. 1988. Atlas of the amphibians and reptiles of New Zealand. Science and Research Directorate. ISBN: 0-478-01041-9.

Robb, Joan. 1986. New Zealand amphibians & reptiles. Wm. Collins. ISBN: 0-00-217575-4.

Sharell, Richard. 1966. The tuatara, lizards and frogs of New Zealand. Wm. Collins. No ISBN.

Thompson, Michael and Charles Daugherty. 1998. Metabolism of tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 119A(2): 519-522.

Thompson, Michael and Charles Daugherty. 1992. Living a lie: New Zealand's tuatara. Australian Natural History 23(12): 928-936. 

Towns, D. and C. Daugherty. 1994. Patterns of range contractions and extinctions in the New Zealand herpetofauna following human colonisation. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 21: 325-339.