A lizardlike reptile that is found only on a few islands near New Zealand, the tuatara is the only living member of an otherwise extinct reptilian order, Rhynochodephalia, that is said to have flourished in the Triassic and Jurassic period. Yet there are no tuatara specimens in more recent layers of the fossil record.
Tuataras are mostly nocturnal.
Their diet consists largely of insects and the occasional small animal. They are anatomically different from lizards and easily distinguished by an extra arch in their skull.