decree of immunity for tuataras, the decimation seems to be continuing 
on the few islands which they still inhabit. 
Probably the day is not far off when the only observable tuatara will 
be a mounted specimen displayed behind museum glass. For although 
some have lived more than twenty-five years in captivity, they usually do 
not reproduce in confinement. Often they will go without eating for months; 
then suddenly they will begin to eat heartily every day. However, they will 
accept only living food. As a result, zoo-keepers sometimes place a chunk 
of meat on a stick and wave it about until the animal snaps at it with its 
sharp teeth. 
Although it resembles the lizard, the tuatara is as nearly related to 
the turtle. Among its outstanding characteristics are a row of yellow erectile 
spines (in the language of the Maoris, tuatara means “having spines”) 
which form a crest on its back, and a third eye set on the top of its head. 
Equipped with a lens, retina and an opening in the skull for the optic nerve, 
the pineal eye, which is no longer used, at least indicates that the tuatara’s 
ancestors had a third functional eye. 
This harmless creature is said to bite and scratch humans, but only 
in self-defense and then not badly. Its color is a dark olive-green. Burrowing 
in the sand dulls it, however, and it is only after a good washing that 
the skin colors assume their intrinsic brightness and distinctiveness. 
The vanishing tuatara has no external sex organs, and hence it is 
difficult to distinguish male from female. 
In November and December, New Zealand summertime, the female 
lays about ten elongated, hard-shelled eggs, which she buries in the sand. 
Thirteen months later the baby tuatara emerges from the shell and within 
six months has doubled in size. 
Alfred Sherwood Romer, in Man and the Vertebrates , states: “It was 
long ago pointed out that the tuatara is a reptilian ‘missing link’ which 
may be a survivor of an archaic group from which the ruling reptiles, 
lizards and perhaps other types may have evolved. 
“Why has this ‘living fossil’ survived in this one locality when its 
relatives have otherwise perished? This is an extreme case of survival due 
to isolation. New Zealand has probably been completely separated from 
other bodies of land since some time in the Age of Reptiles. The develop¬ 
ment of mammals in other continents has probably been a factor in the 
47 
