vintage and contemporary postcards and stamps from around the world


18 November 2018

Sunday Stamps - N

1991, New Zealand, endangered species
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

7 comments:

Bob Scotney said...

I hadn't heard of this impressive animal before. Gorgeous stamp.

Bob Scotney said...

My post is at https://bobscotney.blogspot.com/2018/11/sunday-stamps-n3-malawi-netherlands.html

Joy said...

Certainly a great survivors, I like the active posture on the stamp. My post is up
here

violet s said...

sorry everyone ..... not sure what happened to the linky.

Mail Adventures said...

I had never heard about the tuataras. The illustration is great.

Bob Scotney said...

When 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.

FinnBadger said...

New to me also, they look quite fierce!