Famous Reptile Has Strange Relatives.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19270, 6 January 1931, Page 6

Famous Reptile Has Strange Relatives.

Nature Notes

By

James Drummond.

F.L.S., F.Z.S. THE DEVELOPMENT of the embryo of the tuatara, New Zealand’s famous reptile, called the living fossil on account of its association with extinct reptiles, is almost suspended during the winter months. This hibernation of the embryo within the egg has been observed in only one other vertebrate, the common European tortoise. p llS ’x, other features in the development of the tuatara’s embryo, suggest a close relationship between the tuatara and the tortoises and turtles, although it has no superficial resemblance to them

The tuatara’s oval eggs, about the size of a pullet’s eggs, covered with a soft white skin, need more than a year to hatch. Eggs laid in burrows on Stephen Island, Cock Strait, in November did not hatch until about mid-summer of the following year In the later stages of development, a patch of horny skin on the snout of a young tuatara in the egg forms a sharp cutting instrument, which, doubtless, is used as a shell-cutter, in the same way as a chick uses a similar process.