artist: Pauline Morse
The Tuatara's ancestors have been known to have been around over 225 million years ago. They are the only surviving members of the Sphenodontia (an order of lizard like reptiles). There are still about 100,000 of them living on some of the off shore islands of NZ where predators such as rats, which eat their eggs and compete for food, are not present. It is believed that there were no tuataras living on the North and South Islands by the time European settlers arrived. An average tuatara life span is around 60 years, but they have been known to live to 100 years.
for the letter N - New Zealand
I hadn't heard of this impressive animal before. Gorgeous stamp.
ReplyDeleteMy post is at https://bobscotney.blogspot.com/2018/11/sunday-stamps-n3-malawi-netherlands.html
ReplyDeleteCertainly a great survivors, I like the active posture on the stamp. My post is up
ReplyDeletehere
sorry everyone ..... not sure what happened to the linky.
ReplyDeleteWhen I go to someone's link I am getting an 'Inlinkz' site for 5 seconds before fore example Marias link opens. This has happened for 2 weeks now. Also the URL for your website is also shown as not secure. URLs beginning https// are secure.
DeleteI had never heard about the tuataras. The illustration is great.
ReplyDeleteNew to me also, they look quite fierce!
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