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Tuatara

The Tuatara is an amniote of the family Sphenodontidae. The Tuatara is native to New Zealand, not to be found anywhere else in the world. It´s the sole survivor of the "beak heads" family which is a very ancient group of reptiles.

The Tuatara is the oldest living reptile and has been around for nearly 200 million years. It can live up to an astonishing 100 years.

Young Tuatara have a third eye just on top of their brain in between their other ?normal? eyes. When they become adults, the eye gets covered over.

The male is much bigger than the female. They?re carnivorous. They eat moths and beetles and sometimes small lizards and petrel eggs.

Nowadays, you´ll only find Tuataras on the offshore islands. They were once found all over New Zealand, but were forced out when rodents, wild cats and pigs were introduced to the main land.