The most ancient reptiles are the hatteria. Hatteria

Hatteria hatteria

(tuatara), the only modern representative of the order of beak-headed reptiles. Outwardly similar to a lizard. Length up to 75 cm. Along the back and tail there is a ridge of triangular scales. Lives in burrows up to 1 m deep. Before the arrival of Europeans, it inhabited the northern and southern islands of New Zealand, where end of the 19th century V. was exterminated; preserved on nearby islands in a special reserve. In the IUCN Red List. Successfully bred at Sydney Zoo.

HATTERIA

HATTERIA (tuatara; Sphenodon punctatus), the only species of the genus of the same name in the order Beakheads (cm. beak-headed reptiles) class of reptiles; the oldest of modern reptiles, which appeared in Jurassic period about 165 million years ago. Since then, tuateria has not undergone significant changes and is rightfully called a living fossil. Currently it is found only in New Zealand.
Externally, the hatteria resembles a lizard with big head and a massive body. Body length 65-75 cm. Hatteria is modestly colored: numerous small yellow spots. A ridge of low triangular horny plates stretches from the back of the head to the tip of the tail.
One of the amazing features of the hatteria is the presence of a parietal, or third eye. It is located on the back of the head and hidden under the skin. In adults it is almost invisible, but in young individuals it looks like a surface of the skin not covered with horny scales. The parietal eye has a layer of light-sensitive cells and something like a lens. It does not function as a full-fledged organ of vision, but is capable of assessing the level of illumination. This allows the hatteria to effectively regulate body temperature by choosing a place and posture depending on the angle of incidence sun rays. Temperature limits for tuateria activity range from 6 to 18 °C. None of them modern reptiles not active at this rate low temperatures.
The upper jaw, palate and skull cover of the tuatteria remain mobile throughout its life. Thanks to this, the front end of the upper jaw can be bent down or retracted. This is necessary to securely hold the prey and at the same time absorb the impact of the jaws and jerks of the prey's body. This phenomenon is called cranial kineticism. The special arrangement of the hatteria's teeth also helps retain prey. There are two rows of wedge-shaped teeth on the upper jaw and palatine bone. Another row is located on the lower jaw. When the jaws close, the teeth of the lower row fit between the two upper rows of teeth. In older individuals, the teeth wear down so much that bites are made by the keratinized edges of the jaws.
The heart of the tuateria is designed in the same way as in fish or amphibians. It has a special venous sinus, absent in other modern reptiles. Large eyes with a vertical slit-like pupil contain a reflective layer of cells, allowing them to see well in the dark. There are no eardrums or middle ear cavity.
Hatteria leads night look life. Its main food consists of insects, worms, mollusks, small lizards, as well as bird eggs and chicks. Mating occurs in January, when summer begins in the Southern Hemisphere. However, egg laying is observed only after the winter match - from October to December. The female lays 8-15 eggs in a special nesting chamber, which she then buries. Embryo development lasts from 12 to 15 months. Tutterias reach sexual maturity only at 20 years of age. Life expectancy in nature can exceed 100 years, and in captivity - 50 years.
Before the arrival of European settlers, the hatteria inhabited both of New Zealand's main islands. However, after colonization its extinction began. The main reason was domestic animals brought to the islands - pigs, goats, dogs, cats and rats. Some of them destroyed adult tuataria, others ate eggs and juveniles, and still others destroyed vegetation. As a result, by the end of the 19th century, the tuatteria became extinct on both main islands of New Zealand. Nowadays it is found only in a special reserve, on thirteen small waterless islands to the east and south of them. Petrels nest on these same islands. They make their nests in underground burrows up to a meter deep. Very often, the hatteria settles in the same hole with the petrel. In this case, the bird and reptile live together without causing any harm to each other. During the day, when the petrels are busy searching for food, the hatterias rest in their burrows. With the onset of dusk, the picture changes - petrels return to their nests, and tuataria go hunting. Currently, three subspecies of hatteria are distinguished, differing in the characteristics of their scaly cover and color. All of them are listed in the International Red Book. Hatteria is successfully bred at Sydney Zoo.

Encyclopedic Dictionary . 2009 .

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Hatteria Scientific classification... Wikipedia

Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), the only modern. representative of the beaked order. Known from the Late Jurassic and up. chalk. Outwardly it resembles a lizard. The body is massive, olive green, long. up to 76 cm. Avg. mass of females St. 0.5 kg, males 1 kg. Head... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary

Tuatara Dictionary of Russian synonyms. hatteria noun, number of synonyms: 3 reptile (63) ... Dictionary of synonyms

Modern encyclopedia

- (tuatara) is the only modern representative of the order of beak-headed reptiles. Outwardly similar to a lizard. Length up to 75 cm. Along the back and tail there is a ridge of triangular scales. Lives in burrows up to 1 m deep. Before the arrival of Europeans, it inhabited the North. And … Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Hatteria- HATTERIA, an ancient, relict reptile. Known since the Late Jurassic. Outwardly similar to a lizard. Length up to 75 cm, along the back and tail there is a ridge of triangular scales. Lives in burrows up to 1 m deep. Before the arrival of Europeans, it inhabited northern and southern... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (Sphenodon punctatum), HATTERIA, a reptile similar in appearance to a lizard, the only one modern look the wedge-toothed family (Sphenodontidae), which today represents the ancient order of beak-headed, or proboscis-headed (Rhynchocephalia). Hatteria... ... Collier's Encyclopedia

The only living representative of the subclass of beak-headed reptiles; same as Tuatara... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

See Beakheads... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Ephron

This is the only modern representative of the order of beak-headed reptiles. Outwardly similar to a lizard. Along the back and tail there is a ridge of triangular scales. Lives in burrows up to 1 m deep. Before the arrival of Maori and Europeans, it inhabited the North and South Islands of New Zealand, but was exterminated there by the end of the 19th century; preserved only on nearby islands in a special reserve. It is included in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and natural resources(IUCN). Successfully bred at Sydney Zoo.

Animals similar to hatteria - homeosaurs - lived 140 million years ago in that part of our planet that today has become Europe.

From the famous English navigator James Cook, Europeans learned that in New Zealand there is a “gigantic lizard up to two and a half meters long and as thick as a person.” She supposedly “sometimes even attacks people and devours them.” It must be said that Cook's story contains some exaggerations. The length of the tuateria along with the tail (male) is at most 75 cm (weight about a kilogram), and the tuateria does not hunt humans, but is content with more modest prey - insects, earthworms, and sometimes lizards.

Europeans who arrived in Cook's footsteps in New Zealand, almost put an end to the history of beaked heads, which dates back over 200 million years. More precisely, not they themselves, but rats, pigs and dogs who arrived along with people. These animals exterminated the young tuataria and ate its eggs. As a result, the hatteria almost disappeared. Now the hatteria is under strict protection: anyone who catches or kills this animal risks going to prison. Few zoos in the world can boast of tuataria in their collections. The famous English naturalist Gerald Durrell managed to obtain offspring of the tuataria in his zoo, which were given to him by the New Zealand government. Thanks to environmental measures, by the end of the 70s. In the 20th century, the number of tuateria increased slightly and reached 14 thousand specimens, which brought these animals out of danger of extinction.

To the uninitiated, the hatteria (Sphenodon punctatus) is simply a large, impressive-looking lizard. Indeed, this animal has greenish-gray scaly skin, short strong paws with claws, a crest on its back consisting of flat triangular scales, like agamas and iguanas (the local name for tuatara is derived from the Maori word meaning “spiny "), and a long tail.

However, the hatteria is not a lizard at all. The features of its structure are so unusual that they established for it special squad in the class of reptiles - Rhynchocephalia, which means “beak-headed” (from the Greek “rynchos” - beak and “kephalon” - head; an indication of the premaxillary bone curving down).

True, this did not happen immediately. In 1831, the famous zoologist Gray, having only the skulls of this animal, gave it the name Sphenodon. After 11 years, a whole specimen of the tuatara fell into his hands, which he described as another reptile, giving it the name Hatteria punctata and classifying it as a lizard from the agamas family. Only 30 years later did Gray establish that Sphenodon and Hatteria are one and the same. But even before this, in 1867, it was shown that the resemblance between tuateria and lizards is purely external, but internal structure(primarily the structure of the skull) The Tuatara stands completely apart from all modern reptiles.

And then it turned out that the hatteria, which now lives exclusively on the islands of New Zealand, is a “living fossil”, the last representative of a once widespread group of reptiles that lived in Asia, Africa, North America and even in Europe. But all other beaked heads became extinct in the early Jurassic period, and hatteria managed to exist for almost 200 million years. It is surprising how little its structure has changed over this huge period of time, while lizards and snakes have achieved such diversity.

A very interesting feature of the tuateria is the presence of a parietal (or third) eye, located on the crown between the two real eyes. Its function has not yet been clarified. This organ has a lens and a retina with nerve endings, but is devoid of muscles and any devices for accommodation or focusing. In a baby tuatara that has just hatched from an egg, the parietal eye is clearly visible - like a bare spot surrounded by scales that are arranged like flower petals. Over time, the “third eye” becomes overgrown with scales, and in adult tuatara it can no longer be seen. As experiments have shown, the hatteria cannot see with this eye, but it is sensitive to light and heat, which helps the animal regulate its body temperature, dosing the time it spends in the sun and in the shade.

However, similar education in the upper part of the brain is present in all vertebrates, only it is hidden under the skull.

As excavations show, not so long ago tuataria were found in abundance on the main islands of New Zealand - North and South. But the Maori tribes who settled in these places in the 14th century significantly reduced the number of tuatara. An important role in this was played by animals that arrived along with people that were not typical of the fauna of New Zealand. True, some scientists believe that tuateria died due to changes climatic conditions. Until 1870, it was still found on the North Island, but at the beginning of the 20th century it was preserved only on 20 small islands, of which 3 are in Cook Strait, and the rest are off the northeastern coast of the North Island.

The appearance of these islands is gloomy - cold leaden waves crash on the rocky shores shrouded in fog. The already sparse vegetation suffered greatly from sheep, goats, pigs and other wild animals. Now, every single pig, cat and dog has been removed from the islands on which tuateria populations have remained, and the rodents have been destroyed. All these animals caused great damage to the tuatara by eating their eggs and young. Of the vertebrate animals on the islands, only reptiles and numerous seabirds, establishing their colonies here.

Female tuataria are smaller and almost half the weight of males. These reptiles feed on insects, spiders, earthworms and snails. They love water, often lie in it for a long time and swim well. But the tuatara runs poorly.

Hatteria is a nocturnal animal, and, unlike many other reptiles, it is active at relatively low temperatures - +6°...+8 °C - this is another interesting features her biology. All vital processes in tuateria are slow, metabolism is low. There is usually about 7 seconds between two breaths, but a tuatara can remain alive without taking another breath for an hour.

Winter time- from mid-March to mid-August - tuataria spend in burrows, hibernating. In the spring, females dig special small burrows into which, using their paws and mouth, they transfer a clutch of 8-15 eggs, each of which is about 3 cm in diameter and enclosed in a soft shell. The top of the masonry is covered with earth, grass, leaves or moss. The incubation period lasts about 15 months, that is, much longer than that of other reptiles.

The tuatara grows slowly and reaches sexual maturity no earlier than 20 years. That is why we can assume that she is one of the outstanding long-livers of the animal world. It is possible that some males are over 100 years old.

What else is this animal famous for? Hatteria is one of the few reptiles with a real voice. Her sad, hoarse cries can be heard on foggy nights or when someone is bothering her.

One more amazing feature Tuatara live together with gray petrels, which nest on the islands in self-dug burrows. Hatteria often settles in these holes, despite the presence of birds there, and sometimes, apparently, destroys their nests - judging by the finds of chicks with their heads bitten off. So such a neighborhood, apparently, does not give the petrels much joy, although usually birds and reptiles coexist quite peacefully - the hatteria prefers other prey, which it goes in search of at night, and in the daytime the petrels fly to the sea for fish. When the birds migrate, the hatteria hibernates.

The total number of living tuataria is now about 100,000 individuals. The largest colony is located on Stephens Island in Cook Strait - there, on an area of 3 square meters. There are 50,000 tuatara living in km - an average of 480 individuals per 1 hectare. On small islands with an area of less than 10 hectares, the population of tuateria does not exceed 5,000 individuals. The New Zealand government has long recognized the value of this amazing reptile for science, and there has been a strict conservation regime on the islands for about 100 years. You can visit them only with special permission, and strict liability is established for violators.

Hatterias are not eaten, and their skins have no commercial demand. They live on remote islands, where there are no people or predators, and are well adapted to the conditions existing there. So, apparently, nothing threatens the survival of these unique reptiles at present. They can easily while away their days on secluded islands, to the delight of biologists who, among other things, are trying to find out the reasons why the hatteria did not disappear in those distant times when all its relatives became extinct.

Perhaps we can learn from the people of New Zealand how to protect our natural resources. As Gerald Durrell wrote, “Ask any New Zealander why they protect the tuateria. And they will consider your question simply inappropriate and will say that, firstly, this is a one-of-a-kind creature, secondly, zoologists are not indifferent to it and, thirdly, if it disappears, it will disappear forever.”

Hatteria, known as tuatara (Sphenodon puncstatus) is a very rare reptile, which is the only modern representative belonging to the ancient order of Beaked and the Wedge-toothed family.

Description of the tutelage

At first glance, it is quite possible to confuse the tuatteria with an ordinary, fairly large-sized lizard. But there are a number of characteristics that make it possible to easily distinguish representatives of these two species of reptiles. The body weight of adult male tuateria is about a kilogram, and sexually mature females weigh almost half as much.

Appearance

The animal, similar in appearance to an iguana, belongs to the genus Sphenodon, has a body with a length of 65-75 cm, including the tail. The reptile is characterized by olive-green or greenish-gray coloring on the sides of the body. On the limbs there are pronounced, yellowish spots that vary in size.

Just like the iguana, along the entire surface of the tuatteria’s back, from the occipital region to the tail, there is a not too high crest, which is represented by characteristic, triangular-shaped plates. It was thanks to this crest that the reptile received another very original title– tuatara, which means “spiky”.

However, despite external resemblance with the lizard, around the end of the second half of the nineteenth century, this reptile was assigned to the beak-headed order (Phynchocerhalia), which is due to the structural features of the body, in particular the head area.

A distinctive feature of the structure of the hatteria's cranium is an interesting feature, represented in the youngest individuals by an unusual upper jaw, roof of the skull and palate, which have pronounced mobility relative to the brain case.

This is interesting! In fairness, it should be noted that the presence of cranial kineticism is inherent not only in such a reptile as the hatteria, but is also characteristic of some species of snakes and lizards.

This unusual structure in hatterias was called cranial kineticism. The result of this feature is the ability of the anterior end of the animal's upper jaw to bend slightly downwards with retraction back under conditions of sufficient complex movements in the area of other parts of the skull of a rare reptile. The feature was inherited by terrestrial vertebrates from lobe-finned fish, which is a proven and very distant ancestor of the hatteria.

In addition to the original internal structure of the skull and skeletal part, special attention Domestic and foreign zoologists deserve the presence of a very unusual organ in the reptile, represented by the parietal or third eye, located in the back of the head. The third eye is most pronounced in the youngest immature individuals. The appearance of the parietal eye resembles a bare spot surrounded by scales.

This organ is distinguished by light-sensitive cells and a lens, with complete absence muscles that are responsible for focusing the location of the eye. As the reptile gradually matures, the parietal eye becomes overgrown, so in adult specimens it is difficult to distinguish.

Lifestyle and character

The reptile is active exclusively in low-temperature conditions, and the optimal body temperature of the animal is within 20-23 o C. During the daytime, the tuateria always hides in relatively deep burrows, but with the onset of coolness in the evening it goes out hunting.

The reptile is not very mobile. The hatteria is one of the few reptiles that have a real voice, and this animal's sad and hoarse cries can be heard on foggy nights.

This is interesting! TO behavioral characteristics Tutteria can also be attributed to cohabitation on island territories with the gray petrel and the massive colonization of bird nests.

On winter period the animal goes into hibernation. A tuateria grabbed by the tail quickly throws it away, which often allows the reptile to save its life when attacked by natural enemies. The process of regrowth of a discarded tail takes a long time.

Characteristic is the ability of representatives of the Beak-headed order and the Wedge-toothed family to swim very well and also hold their breath for an hour.

Lifespan

One of biological features such a reptile as tuateria, is a slow metabolism and inhibited life processes, which causes not too rapid growth and animal development.

The tuateria becomes sexually mature only at the age of fifteen or twenty, and the total life expectancy of the reptile is natural conditions may well be a hundred years. Individuals raised in captivity typically live no more than five decades.

Range and habitats

Area natural habitat tuateria until the fourteenth century was introduced South Island, but the arrival of the Maori people caused the complete and fairly rapid disappearance of the population. On the territory of the North Island, the last specimens of the reptile were seen at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Today, the habitat of the most ancient reptile, the New Zealand tuataria, is exclusively small islands near New Zealand. The habitat for the tuateria was specially cleared of wild predatory animals.

Nutrition of the tuateria

Wild tuataria has an excellent appetite. The diet of such a reptile animal is very diverse and is represented by insects and worms, spiders, snails and frogs, small mice and lizards.

Quite often, hungry representatives of the ancient order of Beak-headed and the Wedge-toothed family destroy bird nests, eat eggs and newborn chicks, and also catch small birds. The caught victim is swallowed almost completely by the tuateria, after being only lightly chewed with very well-developed teeth.

Reproduction and offspring

In the midst of it summer period who comes to the territory Southern Hemisphere approximately in last decade January, the process of active reproduction begins in an unusual reptile belonging to the ancient order of Beak-headed and the Wedge-toothed family.

After fertilization occurs, the female lays from eight to fifteen eggs nine or ten months later. The eggs laid in small holes are buried with earth and stones, after which they are incubated. The incubation period is very long, about fifteen months, which is absolutely unusual for other types of reptiles.

This is interesting! The optimal temperature level, which allows for the birth of approximately equal numbers of tuateria babies of both sexes, is 21 o C.

Scientists from one of the leading Universities of Wellington conducted very interesting and unusual experiments, during which they were able to establish a direct relationship between temperature indicators and the sex of the hatched offspring of the tuataria. If the incubation process occurs at temperature conditions at a level of plus 18 o C, then only females are born, and at a temperature of 22 o C only males of this rare reptile will be born.

Natural enemies

This is interesting! Due to the very low rates of metabolic processes, the reptile tuatara, or the so-called tuatara, has a very interesting feature - it is able to breathe with a difference of seven seconds.

Currently, the process of settling islands inhabited by “living fossils” is controlled as carefully as possible by the people themselves. To ensure that the population of the three-eyed lizard is not threatened, the number of all species of predators inhabiting the territory is strictly controlled.

Everyone who wants to see an unusual appearance Tutteria in natural habitats must obtain a special permit or a so-called pass. Nowadays, Hatteria or tuatara is listed on the pages of the International Red Book, and the total number of all existing reptiles is about one hundred thousand individuals.

The most ancient reptile, preserved from the time of dinosaurs, is the three-eyed lizard hatteria, or tuatara (lat. Sphenodon punctatus) - a species of reptile from the order Beaked.

To the uninitiated, the hatteria (Sphenodon punctatus) is simply a large, impressive-looking lizard. Indeed, this animal has greenish-gray scaly skin, short strong paws with claws, a crest on its back consisting of flat triangular scales, like agamas and iguanas (the local name for tuatara - comes from the Maori word meaning "spiny "), and a long tail.

Photo 2.

Tuatara live in New Zealand. Now its representatives have become smaller than they were before.

According to the memoirs of James Cook, on the islands of New Zealand there were tuataras about three meters long and as thick as a person, which they feasted on from time to time.

Today, the largest specimens are just over a meter long. At the same time, the male tuatara, together with the tail, reaches a length of 65 cm and weighs about 1 kg, and females are much smaller than males in size and half lighter.

The tuatara is distinguished as a separate species of reptile, standing apart from all modern reptiles.

Photo 3.

Although in appearance the tuateria resemble large, impressive-looking lizards, especially iguanas, this similarity is only external and has nothing to do with tuateria lizards. In terms of their internal structure, they have much more in common with snakes, turtles, crocodiles and fish, as well as the extinct ichthyosaurs, megalosaurs and teleosaurs.

The peculiarities of its structure are so unusual that a special order was established for it in the class of reptiles - Rhynchocephalia, which means “beak-headed” (from the Greek “rynchos” - beak and “cephalon” - head; an indication of the premaxillary bone curving down).

A very interesting feature of the tuateria is the presence of a parietal (or third) eye, located on the crown between the two real eyes*. Its function has not yet been clarified. This organ has a lens and a retina with nerve endings, but is devoid of muscles and any devices for accommodation or focusing. In a baby tuatara that has just hatched from an egg, the parietal eye is clearly visible - like a bare spot surrounded by scales that are arranged like flower petals. Over time, the “third eye” becomes overgrown with scales, and in adult tuatara it can no longer be seen. As experiments have shown, the hatteria cannot see with this eye, but it is sensitive to light and heat, which helps the animal regulate its body temperature, dosing the time it spends in the sun and in the shade.

Photo 4.

The tuatara's third eye has a lens and retina with nerve endings connected to the brain, but lacks muscles and any devices for accommodation or focusing.

Experiments have shown that the hatteria cannot see with this eye, but it is sensitive to light and heat, which helps the animal regulate its body temperature by dosing the time it spends in the sun and in the shade.

A third eye, but less developed, is also found in tailless amphibians (frogs), lampreys and some lizards and fish.

Photo 5.

The tuatara has a third eye for only six months after birth, then it becomes overgrown with scales and becomes almost invisible.

Photo 6.

In 1831, the famous zoologist Gray, having only the skulls of this animal, gave it the name Sphenodon. After 11 years, a whole specimen of the tuatara fell into his hands, which he described as another reptile, giving it the name Hatteria punctata and classifying it as a lizard from the agamas family. Only 30 years later did Gray establish that Sphenodon and Hatteria are one and the same. But even before this, in 1867, it was shown that the resemblance of the tuatara to lizards is purely external, and in terms of its internal structure (primarily the structure of the skull), the tuatara stands completely apart from all modern reptiles.

And then it turned out that the hatteria, which now lives exclusively on the islands of New Zealand, is a “living fossil”, the last representative of a once widespread group of reptiles that lived in Asia, Africa, North America and even Europe. But all other beakheads died out in the early Jurassic period, and hatteria managed to exist for almost 200 million years. It is surprising how little its structure has changed over this huge period of time, while lizards and snakes have achieved such diversity.

Photo 7.

As excavations show, not so long ago tuataria were found in abundance on the main islands of New Zealand - North and South. But the Maori tribes, who settled in these places in the 14th century, exterminated the Tuatara almost completely. The dogs and rats that came along with the people played an important role in this. True, some scientists believe that the hatteria died due to changes in climatic and environmental conditions. Until 1870, it was still found on the North Island, but at the beginning of the 20th century. has been preserved only on 20 small islands, of which 3 are located in Cook Strait, and the rest are off the northeastern coast of the North Island.

Photo 8.

Photo 9.

An adult male tuateria reaches a length (including tail) of 65 cm and weighs about 1 kg. Females are smaller and almost twice as light. These reptiles feed on insects, spiders, earthworms and snails. They love water, often lie in it for a long time and swim well. But the tuatara runs poorly.

Photo 10.

Photo 11.

Hatteria is a nocturnal animal, and unlike many other reptiles, it is active at relatively low temperatures - +6°...+8°C - this is another interesting feature of its biology. All vital processes in tuateria are slow, metabolism is low. There is usually about 7 seconds between two breaths, but a tuatara can remain alive without taking a single breath for an hour.

Photo 12.

In winter - from mid-March to mid-August - tuataria spend in burrows, hibernating. In the spring, females dig special small burrows into which, using their paws and mouth, they transfer a clutch of 8–15 eggs, each of which is about 3 cm in diameter and enclosed in a soft shell. The top of the masonry is covered with earth, grass, leaves or moss. The incubation period lasts about 15 months, that is, much longer than that of other reptiles.

Photo 13.

What else is this animal famous for? Hatteria is one of the few reptiles with a real voice. Her sad, hoarse cries can be heard on foggy nights or when someone is bothering her.

Another amazing feature of the tuatara is its cohabitation with gray petrels, which nest on the islands in self-dug burrows. Hatteria often settles in these holes, despite the presence of birds there, and sometimes, apparently, destroys their nests - judging by the finds of chicks with their heads bitten off. So such a neighborhood, apparently, does not give the petrels much joy, although usually birds and reptiles coexist quite peacefully - the hatteria prefers other prey, which it goes in search of at night, and in the daytime the petrels fly to the sea for fish. When the birds migrate, the hatteria hibernates.

Photo 14.

The total number of living tuataria is now about 100,000 individuals. The largest colony is located on Stephens Island in the Cook Strait - 50,000 tuatara live there on an area of 3 km2 - an average of 480 individuals per 1 hectare. On small islands with an area of less than 10 hectares, tuateria populations do not exceed 5,000 individuals. The New Zealand government has long recognized the value of this amazing reptile for science, and there has been a strict conservation regime on the islands for about 100 years. You can visit them only with special permission and strict liability is established for violators. In addition, tuatara are successfully bred at the Sydney Zoo in Australia.

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Hatteria is a reptile that has three eyes. She lives in New Zealand. Scientists have found that they began to exist about two hundred million years ago and have not succumbed to changes throughout their existence on the planet.

Hatteria

An interesting fact is that tuataria were able to survive in such difficult conditions. living conditions survive the most big creatures on Earth - dinosaurs.

James Cook is considered the discoverer of the tuatteria, who saw the tuatteria during his trip to New Zealand. Looking at the tuatteria for the first time, it may seem that it is an ordinary lizard. The length of the hatteria is 65-75 centimeters, including the tail. The weight of the tuateria does not exceed 1 kilogram 300 grams.

On average, she lives 60 years, but sometimes her age reached 100 years. The readiness to engage in sexual intercourse appears in tuaterias upon reaching 15-20 years of age. Mating occurs at intervals of four years. Tutteria babies are born almost 12-15 months later. Due to such a long period of reproduction of their own kind, hatteria are decreasing in number too quickly.

Particular activity was observed at night. The tuateria has a superbly developed parietal eye. This part of the body has a connection with the appearance and functions of the pineal gland. The reptile has an olive-green or greenish-gray color, and yellowish spots are visible on its sides. There is a ridge on the back, parts of which resemble triangles. That is why the reptile is sometimes called “spiny.”

Hatteria cannot be classified as a lizard due to the structure of its head. Therefore, scientists in the 19th century. They proposed to separate them into a separate order - the beaked ones. The thing is that reptiles have a unique skull structure. The uniqueness lies in the fact that in young tuataria the upper jaw, upward skull and palate move in relation to the brain case. In scientific circles this is called cranial kineticism. That's why upper part The head of the tuateria tends to tilt down and change position to the opposite during the movements of the rest of the skull.

This skill was passed on to reptiles by lobe-finned fish, which are their ancient ancestors. It should be noted that kineticism is also inherent in some species of lizards and snakes. In addition, today the number of hatterias on the planet is sharply decreasing. Due to this this type reptiles are subject to special control and protection.