Rhynchocephalia
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| Rhynchocephalia is an order of lizard-like reptiles that includes only one living genus, the tuatara (Sphenodon), and only two living species. Despite its current lack of diversity, the Rhynchocephalia at one time included a wide array of genera in several families, and represents a lineage stretching back to the Mesozoic Era. Many of the niches occupied by lizards today were then held by sphenodontians. There was even a successful group of aquatic sphenodontians known as pleurosaurs.
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Tuatara
| phylum | Chordata | The tuatara is a reptile that is endemic to New Zealand and which, though it resembles most lizards, is part of a distinct lineage, order Rhynchocephalia. Their most recent common ancestor with any other extant group is with the squamates (lizards and snakes). For this reason, tuatara are of great interest in the study of the evolution of lizards and snakes, and for the reconstruction of the appearance and habits of the earliest diapsids.
For more information, visit the Wikipedia entry. Get back to Reptiles |
| clade | Diapsida | |
| order | Rhynchocephalia | |
| family | Sphenodontidae | |
| genus | Sphenodon | |
| species | S. punctatus S. guntheri |
