Tuatera
the native name of Sphenodon punctatum, a large lizard from New Zealand; olive sides and limbs with minute white specks, beneath yellowish; the spines of the nuchal and dorsal crests yellow, of the caudal brown; the scales of the back, head, tail and limbs small, granular, nearly uniform; with irregular folds in the skin, which are TUATERA fringed at the top with a series of rather larger scales; an oblique ridge of larger scales on each side of the base of the tail, and a few shorter longitudinal ridges of rather smaller ones on each side of the upper part of the tail. The tuateras are apparently carnivorous, and in captivity are fed on raw meat, living frogs, small lizards, earthworms, mealworms, snails, young birds, or mice. The tuatera is remarkable as being the only living reptile of the order Rhynchosauria, and it was in the tuatera that the parietal or unpaired eye was first observed.