Sphenodon
The tuatara is a species of reptile endemic to New Zealand. Despite its close resemblance to lizards, it is the only extant member of a distinct lineage, the previously highly diverse order Rhynchocephalia. The name tuatara is derived from the Māori language and means "peaks on the back".
Sid Mosdell from New Zealand · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- SphenodontidaePBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Time the record covers
At least 15 million years on record.
The record covers at least 15.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 18.7 Mya to 0 Mya.
16 occurrences of Sphenodon on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
16 occurrences- Miocene13%
- Pleistocene19%
- Holocene69%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
2 formations
- Hillgrove Formation3
- Bannockburn Formation · Manuherikia Group2
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The named rock units Sphenodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Found in the same rock
151 taxa- Coturnix novaezelandiae10 sites
- Cyanoramphus10 sites
- Rattus exulans8 sites
- Turnagra capensis8 sites
- Hoplodactylus maculatus7 sites
- Puffinus gavia7 sites
- Aegotheles novaezealandiae6 sites
- Callaeas cinereus6 sites
- Chenonetta finschi6 sites
- Coenocorypha aucklandica6 sites
- Gallirallus australis6 sites
- Oligosoma lineoocellatum6 sites
- Passer domesticus6 sites
- Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae6 sites
- Rhipidura fuliginosa6 sites
- Carduelis carduelis5 sites
- Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae5 sites
- Mus musculus5 sites
- Mystacina robusta5 sites
- Oligosoma nigriplantare5 sites
- Petroica australis5 sites
- Sceloglaux albifacies5 sites
- Sturnus vulgaris5 sites
- Tadorna variegata5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Sphenodon, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
3 references- Quaternary fossil fauna of South Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand11
- Late-Pleistocene avifaunas from Cape Wanbrow, Otago, South Island, New Zealand3
- A sphenodontine (Rhynchocephalia) from the Miocene of New Zealand and palaeobiogeography of the tuatara (Sphenodon)2
Each of the 16 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content3
Picture of Sphenodon
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Sid Mosdell from New Zealand
- Licence
- CC BY 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Sphenodon punctatus · UF:Herp:11978
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC0 Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Tuatara”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itSphenodontidae through timeThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1831