Rare baby reptile dating back to dinosaur age is found on New Zealand mainland for first time in 200

Rare baby reptile dating back to dinosaur age is found on New Zealand mainland for first time in 200 years

A hatchling of a rare reptile with lineage dating back to the dinosaur age has been found in the wild on the New Zealand mainland for the first time in 200 years, a wildlife official revealed today.
The baby tuatara was discovered by staff during routine maintenance work at the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in the capital, Wellington, conservation manager Raewyn Empson said.

'We are all absolutely thrilled with this discovery,' she said. 'It

Tuatara are the last lizard-like descendants of a reptile species that walked the Earth alongside dinosaurs 225 million years ago, say zoologists.

There are estimated to be about 50,000 living in the wild on 32 small offshore islands cleared of predators, but this is the first time a hatchling has been seen on the mainland in about 200 years.
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www.dailymail.co.uk...

Alongside with this discovery not many weeks ago there have been several dozens of new species discovered and which were thought to have been extinct.

The same thing happened after the 2004 tsunami event. Species that were deep underwater and were thought to no longer exist were found in the aftermath of the event.

Here are some of the discoveries, which shows Earth, and it's species of animals are more resilient than most people think.

findarticles.com...

findarticles.com...

www.telegraph.co.uk...

dsc.discovery.com...

www.hindu.com...

conservationreport.com...

scrapsunday.blogspot.com...

news.bbc.co.uk...

english.peopledaily.com.cn...

When I see all of these discoveries of species that wee thought to be extinct yet are alive and well today, reminds of the statement made in the movie Jurassic Park, when the scientist of the chaos theory says

" All i am saying is that life always finds a way".

Some good news in a world of dozens of bad news.

Its little front feet look similar to human hands.

[edit on 23-3-2009 by MR BOB]

This is exciting, and this little "lizard" is really a cutie. LOL My daughter would love to see this.

Peace

This is amazing! He is so cute!!!
My father and brother used to raise many different kinds of reptiles for many years....so im a huge fan of them.
Thanks for posting this, I sent this off to my father who probably does not know about this!

Just want to point out that this is not a newly discovered species. It is simply the first time that a hatchling has been seen on the mainland. There are plenty of them on offshore islands, and it is highly likely that some have managed to migrate to the mainland, perhaps being washed up from a storm. Reptiles are also very good swimmers.

As for their front feet looking like human hands.... Evolution. Numerous species have five toes or fingers, even Whales have a very similar skeletal structure to humans.
Images of Whale flipper bones and human hand bones