How tuatara live so long and can withstand cool weather

A tuatara may look like your average lizard, but it’s not. The reptiles are the last survivors of an ancient group of reptiles that flourished when dinosaurs roamed the world.

Native to New Zealand, tuatara possess a range of remarkable abilities, including a century-long life span, relative imperviousness to many infectious diseases and peak physical activity at shockingly low temperatures for a reptile.

Now, scientists are figuring out how, thanks to the first-ever deciphering, or sequencing, of the tuatara’s genetic instruction book.

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Sid Mosdell/Flickr

The tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), a reptile whose ancestry stretches back to before the dinosaurs, is more closely related to snakes and lizards than to turtles and crocodiles, suggests the first-ever in-depth genetic analysis.

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By KeresH

A male tuatara named Henry, living at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, is still reproductively active at 111 years of age

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By de:Benutzer:Hase

Tuatara juvenile (Sphenodon punctatus)

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Tuatara have often been referred to as living fossils, and it’s easy to understand why when you consider this Reptile once flourished around 200 million years ago.

This baby predator, just hatched after 16 months will share its habitat with other survivors of the Jurassic age.

Dragon wrote:
By KeresH

A male tuatara named Henry, living at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, is still reproductively active at 111 years of age

Source / Image Courtesy

111 years of age, how amazing is that he's cute, looks quite observant of his surroundings as well. Sharp mind for 111