About: Spec: Sphenodontidae   Sponge Permalink

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Sphenodontida is an ancient group of lizard-like reptiles that enjoyed great success during the Mesozoic. The sphenodonts' kin, rhynchocephalians, or "beak heads", spread across the globe, both in Laurasia and Gondwana. Fossil rhynchocephalians are poorly-studied, but it seems they radiated into a number of forms, including the lizard-like types that are now their only legacy. Today, sphenodonts are restricted to parts of Australia, Tasmania, Aotearoa, and the surrounding islands.

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  • Spec: Sphenodontidae
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  • Sphenodontida is an ancient group of lizard-like reptiles that enjoyed great success during the Mesozoic. The sphenodonts' kin, rhynchocephalians, or "beak heads", spread across the globe, both in Laurasia and Gondwana. Fossil rhynchocephalians are poorly-studied, but it seems they radiated into a number of forms, including the lizard-like types that are now their only legacy. Today, sphenodonts are restricted to parts of Australia, Tasmania, Aotearoa, and the surrounding islands.
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abstract
  • Sphenodontida is an ancient group of lizard-like reptiles that enjoyed great success during the Mesozoic. The sphenodonts' kin, rhynchocephalians, or "beak heads", spread across the globe, both in Laurasia and Gondwana. Fossil rhynchocephalians are poorly-studied, but it seems they radiated into a number of forms, including the lizard-like types that are now their only legacy. Order sphenodontida, the tuataras, are all that remains of the once fecund rhynchocephalian tree. Occurring in but one genus, Sphenodon (Spec's p-Shenodon), tuataras resemble lizards in their outward form, but their inner anatomy is quite strange. Sphenodonts lack the kinetic, flexible jaws of lizards, building their skulls, instead, out of resilient plates of bone. Their teeth are not rooted in the jaw as in lizards and mammals, but actually fused into the mandible. Some features of the tuataras' skulls resemble those of crocodiles, and their hearts are the most primitive known in reptiles. Tuataras have very slow metabolisms, and often live for over a century. Today, sphenodonts are restricted to parts of Australia, Tasmania, Aotearoa, and the surrounding islands. The coppery tuatara is one of the few sphenodonts that have survived to the present, inhabiting New Zealand and some parts of Australia. This species can grow to be half a meter long and lives up to 100 years. The copper tuatara uses its long spiked front limbs to dig up grubs and its large, plump tail is used to store water during the dry season.
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