Dinosaurs

Before heading up the east coast of the South Island, we stopped in Invercargill to see the world's only living dinosaurs at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery.  This is Henry the Dinosaur.

Jan reflecting 

Jan and Henry - One of them is a dinosaur

The tuatara is a reptile that is endemic to New Zealand which, though it resembles most lizards, is part of a distinct lineage, order Rhynchocephalia.  The two species of tuatara are the only surviving members of it's order, which flourished around 200 million years ago.  Their most recent common ancestor with any other extant group  is with the squamates (lizards and snakes).  For this reason, tuatara are of great interest in the study of the evolution of lizards and snakes, and for the reconstruction of the appearance and habits of the earliest diapsids (the group that also includes birds, dinosaurs, and crocodiles).

Easy to see why a tuatara never wanders farther than 10 meters from it's home in it's long life.

Tuatara probably have the slowest growth rates of any reptile, continuing to grow larger for the first 35 years of their lives.  The average lifespan is about 60 years, but they can live to be well over 100 years old.  Some experts believe captive tuatatara could live as long as 200 years.

Several tuatara breeding programs are active within New Zealand.  Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill was the first to have a tuatara breeding program; they breed S. punctatus.  The WildNZ Trust has a tuatara breeding enclosure and Ruawai.  On 28 January 2009, the11th of 11 eggs belonging to tuataras Henry and Mildred hatched.  This rare occurance came after Henry had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor that was inhitbiting both his ability and desire to breed.