Tuatara finds love in middle age – at 110!

https://youtu.be/OIjAclFJd9U

This video is called 5 Facts Why You Should LOVE Tuataras

The Waterthrush Blog

Personally, I have no intention of living to be 110 – it doesn’t sound like much fun to me. But apparently, tuataras can just be coming into their prime about then, as this story of a captive breeding program in New Zealand attests. I’ve always read that tuataras were “living fossils”, but I never appreciated how that moniker could apply to individuals as well as to the species.

Tuataras occupy a limited distribution, having been extirpated from most of their former range on the main islands of New Zealand:

Full interpretation of the map can be found here.

Conservation-wise, humans and their associated exotic pets and parasites have been a bane for tuataras, and some suggest that climate change will not serve them well. But for some real neat info, check the link here to Michael Ryan’s “Palaeoblog.” It includes a recently published article indicating that tuataras are…

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