Abstract
The interest which the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) (Figs 1–4) has aroused amongst scientists stems from its affinities with an otherwise extinct order of reptiles, the Rhynchocephalia. Rhynchocephalians occur in fossil beds originating from the lower Triassic (ca 200 million years B.P.) through the Jurassic and into the lower Cretaceous (to about 135 million years B.P.). They seem to have been at their most abundant in the latter part of the Triassic and during the Jurassic because fossils from these periods are both varied and common, particularly in South America and Africa. However the fossil record peters out during the Cretaceous period. The rich Cretaceous beds of Europe and South America have yielded only a few small members of the order, and consequently paleontologists consider it to have become extinct sometime during this period, or at least by the time it ended 60 million years ago.
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Crook, I.G. (1975). The Tuatara. In: Kuschel, G. (eds) Biogeography and Ecology in New Zealand. Monographiae Biologicae, vol 27. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1941-5_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1941-5_8
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