Tuatara
/tuːəˈtɑːɹə/ noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A reptile, Sphenodon punctatus, native to New Zealand, that resembles a lizard and is the only surviving specimen of the order Rhynchocephalia.
"In New Zealand the dinosaurs had perished 65 million years before, as they had elsewhere on the globe; but the sphenodons or tuataras who had been their contemporaries from Jurassic times persisted, in New Zealand but nowhere else, for reasons that remain obscure."
- 2 only extant member of the order Rhynchocephalia of large spiny lizard-like diapsid reptiles of coastal islands off New Zealand wordnet
Example
More examples"In New Zealand the dinosaurs had perished 65 million years before, as they had elsewhere on the globe; but the sphenodons or tuataras who had been their contemporaries from Jurassic times persisted, in New Zealand but nowhere else, for reasons that remain obscure."
Etymology
Borrowed from Māori tuatara.