10 Amazing facts about the Tuatara
1. Born with a third eye on the top of their head that is covered over with skin as they grow older. It is said they use it to take in vitamin D.
2. Digestion is completed in the mouth before swallowing. They release acids in the mouth.
3. To drink water they sit in water to absorb it in their skin. They don’t drink water.
4. They don’t have any ears but can hear quite well.
5. They bury their eggs for fifteen months so they can get away otherwise the parents would eat them.
6. When they go into hibernation they breath once every three hours and they don’t eat for 6 months.
7. When in hibernation they cannot move so that makes them easy prey for Rats and Stoats that is why there is none left on the main land of New Zealand.
8. They have a lock jaw like a Pit ball Terrier and about 100 years ago one man was bitten once in New Zealand. They had to kill the Tuatara to get it off him.
9. They are the oldest living fossil in the world.
10. They are the only living thing that survived the extinction of the Dinosaurs unchanged.
You can see the Tuatara at: