Ten Things I Like About... Podcast

Tuatara: Diet and Dentition

Summary: You are what you eat, right? Find out what tuatara eat and how they eat it in the seventh episode of Tuatara.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Tuatara” Royal Ontario Museum, https://collections.rom.on.ca [https://collections.rom.on.ca] “Microstructure of dental hard tissues and bone in the Tuatara denture, Sphenodon punctatus,” by J.A. Kierser, T. Tkatchenko, M. C. Dean, M. E. H. Jones, and N. J. Nelson. Front Oral Biol. 2009:13:80-85. https://pubme.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19828975 [https://pubme.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19828975] Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops)   Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… This is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it. We have made it to the seventh episode of Tuatara and the seventh thing I like about these super cool reptiles is their diet and dentition. We have hinted a bit about what they eat but today we’ll take a closer look at what that is specifically and how their teeth help.  Let’s start with food. Tuatara are carnivores. They eat mainly invertebrates like worms and arthropods such as beetles, millipedes, spiders, and weta. Weta are insects native to New Zealand that look similar to crickets but like crickets on steroids. Weta have big bodies, spiny legs, and tusks. They look kind of like a cricket and a warthog had a baby.     The majority of the tuatara diet is made up of invertebrates but they will also eat lizards, seabird eggs and chicks, and occasionally they venture in to cannibalism and will eat young tuatara. Because of this, juvenile tuatara are active during the day while adult tuatara are active at night. I mean, really, if your relatives might eat you at night, then who wouldn’t want to avoid them.  Humans that live on the islands where tuatara are found always know when they’ve been hunting because they will see headless birds. Definitely not something you want to come across on a relaxing walk in nature. Why is this the indicator of the tuatara? The tooth pattern of the tuatara is unique. Just like almost everything else about them. They have two incisor like teeth in front of their top jaw. And they have three rows of teeth (I was not able to find an actual count but am guessing it’s around 85 teeth). One row of teeth lines the bottom jaw and two rows line the top jaw. The bottom row of teeth fit neatly into the two upper rows of teeth when the jaw is closed. Wait for it, we almost have our answer. The jaw motion of the tuatara is also unique. Instead of an up and down motion, like chewing, they have a forward and backward motion, like sawing.  And there it is! This is why the birds that tuatara hunt are missing heads. They saw them off with their unique teeth. Hah! Didn’t see that coming did you? Besides the unique pattern of teeth, the structure of their teeth is also unique. They have acrodont teeth which means they are rootless and attached directly to the bone of the jaw. They kind of emerge from the actual bone. This is unlike any other reptile teeth alive today. The teeth are serrated which helps with the sawing motion. Tuatara cannot replace lost or cracked teeth. Once the tooth is gone, it is gone. As tuatara age their teeth wear down from use. They are eating crunchy invertebrates and bony vertebrates, so they do take a beating. Tuatara can live for up to 100 years, so the older tuatara have to switch their diet to softer prey as their teeth wear down.  Now for a long time, we thought they didn’t have real teeth. We thought they were just bony protrusions that stuck out of the jaw, but some researchers in 2009 looked more closely at the teeth. They looked at teeth from a juvenile as well as an adult and found layers of typical tooth material. This was a surprise. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy, which is a sophisticated imaging technique that uses an electron beam to examine the surface of various materials, researchers found evidence of enamel containing dentine tubules, dentine, and cementum. All of these are found in other types of teeth. It’s not just serrated, bony material sticky up in their mouths. They have actually teeth. They are different then your average tooth, but they are teeth none-the-less. These tuatara are just full of surprises! I hope you enjoyed our dental adventure because my seventh favorite thing about the tuatara is what they eat and how they eat it!   If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another exciting episode about the tuatara.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Tuatara: Living Fossil

Summary: The term “living fossil” is a bit controversial but does it fit the tuatara? Join Kiersten to find out.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  “New study shows modern tuatara are little changed from 190 million year old ancestors.” Harvard University Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, March 2022. https://www.oeb.harvard.edu/news [https://www.oeb.harvard.edu/news] Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops)   Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… This is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it. The sixth thing I like about the tuatara is how long they have lived. Just like another animal we have talked about, the coelacanth, the tuatara appears in the fossil record from way back in time. The first time we see the tuatara in the fossil record is during the Jurassic period. Now, of course, a certain book and movie series has made this a very popular time in Earth’s history, so you may be familiar with this time period. It is famous for being the age of dinosaurs, at least some of the most popular and recognizable dinosaurs.  The term living fossil has been tossed around in reference to the tuatara, as well as the coelacanth, but this term is controversial. It is quite the romantic phrase actually. To think that an animal is so well adapted to the world it lives in that is hasn’t changed since the first time it appeared on this planet is a notion that a lot of us want to believe, but is it true? The first major problem with this concept, is that there is no real definition of what makes an animal or plant a living fossil.  Charles Darwin coined the term “living fossil” in 1859. According to Darwin’s definition a living fossil is a species or group of species that is so little changed that it provides an insight into earlier, now extinct, forms of life. A living fossil can also be described as an organism that has remained relatively unchanged over millions of years, or one that has no, or very few, close surviving relatives. It certainly sounds like we have stumbled on another controversy here. In the last episode we answered the question of whether the tuatara is a lizard or not. Spoiler here, listeners, if you haven’t heard the previous episode and you don’t want a spoiler to this question, stop listening now and go back and listen to last week’s episode. With that warning, let’s move on. We have established that tuatara are not lizards, they are reptiles but not lizards for various reasons. Shall we jump into the next controversial question then? Are tuatara living fossils? Let’s look at Darwin’s definition first. How much  have tuatara changed since they first appeared in the fossil record? A 2022 study from Harvard University’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology may give us some insight. Tuatara are the last remnant of the Rhynchocephalians. These reptiles peaked in abundance in the Jurassic period. Then they disappeared from the fossil record.   Two researchers were looking through the archives in the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and came across something that had been sitting in the drawers for decades, a tuatara fossil. This fossil was discovered in northern Arizona in the Kayenta Formation of the United States in 1982. Professor Stephanie Pierce and postdoctoral fellow Tiago Simoes jumped into examining this forgotten fossil. They used micro-CT scans to examine the fossil in three dimension. Then they digitally pieced the puzzle together revealing a full unflattened skull. It greatly resembled the modern day tuatara. It had rows of interlocking teeth that extended directly from the bone and it had two holes behind the eyes, just like the modern day tuatara.  Pierce and Simoes named the fossil Navajoshenodon sani which means “old age” in the indigenous language of the Navajo. This fossil provides the first nearly complete skull of any fossil sphenodontine in the world. It also places the tuatara in the Late Triassic. They may be older than we thought.  So how does this help us determine the answer to the living fossil question? It does give support for both descriptions. The modern day tuatara is similar enough to the fossil that it gives us insight into a long dead relative, and it seems to have changed very little from the long ago fossil of a creature that roamed the planet with dinosaurs.  Unlike the coelacanth, which is definitely not a living fossil, maybe the tuatara is a living fossil. It is food for thought and that is one of the reasons I started this podcast. I hope you will continue to think about this small living fossil controversy because it is my sixth favorite thing about the tuatara. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another exciting episode about the tuatara.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Tuatara: Lizard or Not a Lizard?

Summary: Is the tuatara a lizard? We have hinted at it for a few episodes. Join Kiersten to find out if the tuatara is or is not a lizard.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “It’s not a lizard or a dinosaur: the tuatara is something else entirely,” by Bec Crew. Australian Geographic, https://www.australiangeographic.com.au [https://www.australiangeographic.com.au] “New study shows modern tuatara are little changed from 190 million year old ancestors.” Harvard University Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. https://www.oeb.harvard.edu [https://www.oeb.harvard.edu] Parietal Eye, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/veterinary-science-and-veterinary-medicine/parietal-eye [https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/veterinary-science-and-veterinary-medicine/parietal-eye] Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops)   Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… This is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it. During the last few episodes of tuatara, I have asked the question of whether the tuatara is a lizard or not a lizard. Today we are going to answer that question. The fifth thing I like about the tuatara is the unusual quirks that make them a unique reptile. We have established that the tuatara is in an order of reptiles all by itself, Order Rhynchocephalia. This means that they have no living relatives. That in itself doesn’t mean they are not lizards, it just means they are not related to any living lizards. So let’s look at a few more attributes of the tuatara that will help us answer our question. In the last episode we discussed the third eye, or parietal eye of the tuatara. Now other species of reptiles, mainly lizards, have a third eye as well. Certain iguanas, skinks, and monitors have a parietal eye, but their third eye is primitive and is not visibly seen at any stage of their development. The basics of the eye are there but it is hidden under a scale. The tuatara’s eye is much more developed and is exposed in young hatchlings. For more in depth discussion of the tuatara’s this eye, please listen to the previous episode. There are several things about the tuatara’s skeleton that also sets it apart from lizards.  One is the teeth. The tuatara has three rows of teeth. One row in the lower jaw and two in the upper jaw. When the tuatara bits down the lower teeth fit into the groove between the two rows of upper teeth. That is very unusual and as far as we currently know, no other reptile has a tooth formation like this. The teeth are fused to the jaw and have no roots, which is unlike most lizard teeth. Tuatara teeth are not replaced during their lifetime and as they age and their teeth wear down, they have to switch to softer prey.  Another strange and interesting thing about the tuatara’s jaw is that when it eats the jaw doesn’t open and close in the typical chewing motion of most animals. It moves forwards and backwards slicing their prey like a saw. Locals of the islands where tuatara live always know when the reptiles have been hunting because they find birds with their heads sawed off.  Another unique attribute of the tuatara skull is the complete lower temporal bar that closes the lower temporal fenestra. The temporal fenestra is the opening in the skull behind the eye socket. Most modern lizards do not have a complete temporal bar. Researchers believe the complete bar in the tuatara is used to stabilize the skull during biting. It’s a unique jaw motion and it makes sense that the skull needs a bit more support. As we travel down the skeleton of the tuatara we see some more unique features. The spine is made up of hourglass shaped vertebrae. This shape can be found in fish and amphibians but is unique reptiles to the tuatara. Each vertebrae has a tiny hole through which a rennet of the notochord passes. This was typical in early fossil reptiles but not in modern ones.  Could there be more unique features of this amazing reptile? Yes. We are not done with the odd features of the tuatara. Their ribs have some unique features as well. They have extra ribs, or rib-like bones, called gastralia that are not attached to the ribcage. These are also found in a few lizards and crocodiles. The tuatara have unicate processes on the actual ribs that are indicative of birds, and are found in modern bird skeletons, but are found only in the tuatara in the reptilians. The pelvis and shoulder girdles of tuatara are also completely different from lizards. Tuatara have a different rotational angle that allows them to push their body up off of the ground to move, should they choose to, where as lizards have a more sprawling motion when they walk. Tuatara don’t often hold themselves up to walk as it is tiring. Tuatara are also equipped for a cooler habitat than lizards. They have a unique hemoglobin structure that allows them to survive very cold temperatures. One last unique attribute of tuatara that I will mention in this episode is how long they live. Tuatara can live up to one hundred years! That is definitely longer than any lizard we know of today.   So knowing about all these different and unique attributes of the tuatara, we come back to the question of whether they are lizards or not lizards. Science says, no they are not lizards and those that study the tuatara are definitely offended when they are called lizards. If anyone ever asks or incorrectly refers to the tuatara as a lizard, you can now politely inform them that they are incorrect. Tuatara are not lizards, reptiles yes, lizards no. My fifth favorite thing about the tuatara is that they are truly not lizards. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another exciting episode about the tuatara.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Tuatara: Eyes

Summary: Are tuatara eyes like every other reptile’s eyes? Maybe. Join Kiersten to find out what makes tuatara eye so special.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “The lonely eye,” by I R Schwab and G R O’Connor. Br J Ophthalmic. 2025 Mar:89(3):256. Doi:10.1136/bio.2004.059105 “Reptilian Eyes and Orbital Structures,” Jeanette Wyneken. 2012 Proceedings Association of Reptiles and Amphibian Veterinarians. https://cdn.ymaws.com [https://cdn.ymaws.com] Parietal Eye, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/veterinary-science-and-veterinary-medicine/parietal-eye [https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/veterinary-science-and-veterinary-medicine/parietal-eye] Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops)   Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… This is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it. As I begin episode four, I want to remind you of the question I posed at the beginning of the third episode. Is the tuatara a lizard or not a lizard? It is definitely lizard like. This episode, episode four, we will be talking about an attribute that might shed some light on the answer to this question. The fourth thing I like about the tuatara is their eyes, all three of them. To start, let’s look at the anatomy of the general reptile eye. Reptilian eyes are similar to other vertebrate eyes in the fact that they are layered, filled with fluid, and have a lens that focuses light on a retina. The structure of the eye includes three chambers. The anterior chamber is the fluid-filled space inside the eye between the iris and the cornea’s innermost surface. The posterior chamber is a small space directly behind the iris, close to the lens, and bordered by the ciliary muscles. The anterior and posterior chambers are filled with aqueous humour. The third chamber is the vitreous chamber located between the lens and the retina and filled with vitreous humour.  Tuatara have two lateral eyes, one on each side of the head, that rest in a bony orbit. They are separated by a cartilaginous interorbital septum. A periorbital membrane lines the orbital bones and septum that connects to the orbital membranes and the internal parts of the upper and lower eye lids. Whoa! We got a little scientific for a moment there, but anatomy can do that! These two lateral eyes are placed on the opposites sides of the head so they can have a wide perspective of their environment. Typically we see this eye position in prey animals and not all lizards are prey animals, but many of them are. Tuatara, as full grown adults, don’t have to worry too much about being eaten, but this eye placement is very helpful, none the less.    Most diurnal reptiles can see some amount of color, whether they see color the same way other vertebrates see color is still being studied, but the presence of cones is proof that they can see colors. Cones are useful in bright light, so reptiles active during the day will have more cones that those that are crepuscular, active at dawn and dusk, and those that are nocturnal. More rods are present in the eyes of nocturnal animals and these help pick up light and dark shades. Tuatara are active during the day and night, but are most active after dark; therefore, they most likely have more rods than cones.  They do have both upper and lower eyelids and are capable of closing their lids. They do not appear to have a nictitating membrane, which is another protective lens that can open and close over they eye, that some other reptiles have. They also have pupils that can contract and expand to allow various levels of light into the eye. When looking at close up photos of the tuatara’s eye the pupil is circular or oval along the vertical horizon. Interestingly, pupil shape in reptile eyes varies with behavior of the animal. Diurnal reptiles tend to have to have round pupils while nocturnal hunters have slits. Reptiles with slit pupils will have a pupil that is perpendicular to their orientation because that offers the best focus. The shape of the pupil has a profound influence on the retinal image because of the way light is allowed into the eye. Who knew the anatomy of the reptilian eye could be so fascinating. Okay, let’s get to that third eye I mentioned. There are actually two orders of reptiles that have a third eye, Order Squamata, which includes lizards and snakes, and Order Rhynchocephlia, which includes only the Tuatara. Lizards and the tuatara are the only reptiles that we know of that have third eyes. The third eye is also called the parietal eye and is found on the dorsal portion of the skull. It is smack dab in the middle of the top of the skull, because where else would a third eye be found? Anatomically speaking the parietal eye cannot focus on images like lateral eyes, so the third eye is not used for vision. At least not the parietal eyes on the current living tuatara. But this eye is more similar to lateral eyes than you might expect. The parietal eye is ventral to a parietal plug that is very similar to a cornea. Immediately below the plug is a lens that is remarkably similar to the lens in the lateral eyes. Below the lens are layers of pigment and photoreceptors. Photoreceptors detect light. Now we see where we are going with this whole third eye anatomy, maybe.  For a long time we thought that the parietal eye was used to detect light. It helped the animal tell when it was day and when it was night, and probably helped set animal’s the circadian rhythm. It helps the tuatara determine the changing of the seasons based on differences in the light cycle. But is that all there is to it? Some researchers believe that the third eye might be included in melatonin synthesis was well as other hormones. What it truly does is still a mystery. So….does this help answer our question about whether the tuatara is a lizard or not? Some lizards do have third eyes, just like the tuatara so leaning towards yes? Before you comment though, let me through out one more thing about the tuatara’s third eye. When they are newly hatched the third eye is  exposed and looks just like their lateral eyes. I’m not joking, search for tuatara hatchling third eye and you’ll see what I’m talking about. It’s very cool! As the tuatara ages the third eye is covered over with a clear scale obscuring it from view.  I hope you have enjoyed this discussion about tuatara eyes because it’s my fourth favorite thing about these interesting reptiles. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another exciting episode about the tuatara.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Tuatara: Reproduction

Summary: Join Kiersten as she takes you on a slow look at tuatara reproduction.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Novel mating behaviors in male tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) expand our understanding of reptile courtship,” by Sarah K. Lamar, Diane K. Ormsby, and Nicola J. Nelson. Austral Ecology, vol 49, Issue 2. https://doi.org/10.1111/aec13496 [https://doi.org/10.1111/aec13496] “Tuatara.” San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, https://animals.sandiegozoo.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops)   Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… This is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it. Welcome back to Ten Things I Like About after a year end break. I hope the new year treats you well and opportunities abound. Let’s get started! We will continue with Tuatara. The third thing I like about tuatara is reproduction. As we travel along with the journey of discovery with tuatara, I want to pose a question to you. Is the tuatara a lizard? Or is it something else? Based on the physical description I outlined in the first episode, they seem to be lizards, if not very lizard like. But I want you to keep this question in the back of your mind as we progress through each new episode. We will revisit this question at the end of this series and see what we all think. Okay, let’s talk about how baby tuatara are made. Tuatara mating and reproduction is not like anything else in the reptile world. Long incubation periods, extensive maturation, and unusual consummation marks the reproductive cycle of the tuatara. It all begins sometime between January and March when males begin showing off to attract a mate. Remember those spines that they have on their neck and back, well they are there for pretties. They can fan out and shake the larger crest of spines in hopes of attracting a lady. For a long time we thought this was all the males did during the breeding season, but a study that looked more closely at males on Takapourewa Island revealed many more tricks they use to catch the ladies eye.  Boys will come a courting at a female’s burrow and it can get complicated and lengthy. It might be a good idea that she gets to stay at home once all the excitement begins. First, the male adopts body positions that make him look big, such as inflating the body and gular region (that’s the chin area), elevating his body off the forest floor (the up part of a push-up), and erecting those spines on his neck and back. Next, the male will begin the slow proud walk, also known as stolzer Gang, in a circle around the female. He’ll perform this slow exaggerated walk in concentric circles, pausing occasionally, and decreasing the circle circumference with each pass. If the female is interested, she will leave her burrow entrance, allow the male to paw at her, and then mount her from behind. If there are obstacles in the male’s circular path, they will climb over, or go around. If the obstacle is too big to conquer, they’ll just shorten the circle to a semi-circle. I mean you gotta give them props for not getting distracted from their goal. The proud walk can last up to 44 minutes.    A few novel behaviors were observed by researchers studying the Takapourewa population. Mirrored head bobbing between the male and female was observed a few times, something that has not been seen in reptiles before. The male would bob his head a specific number of times and when he paused, the female would bob the small numbers of times. This was a very exciting discovery that will need more research to determine what it means and if it is found in other populations of tuatara, but how very interesting. Vocalizations in tuatara are typically limited to croaks emitted when handled, or during aggressive moments between males, but these researchers encountered several males that purred during the mating process. We aren’t sure what this means or if this is a wide spread behavior but it is another exciting discovery. Once the female has accepted the male and he mounts her from behind, he positions his pelvis so that both of their cloacas come in contact. This is how he spreads his sperm to her. Males do not have special reproductive organs like most other reptiles. So they perform the cloacal kiss to pass their sperm to the female. Male sperm are fast swimmers. They are actually the fastest sperm in the reptile kingdom, moving two to four times faster than any other reptile’s sperm. The female can store the sperm for 10 to 12 months.  Before all this happens, the female has been working on creating the eggs inside her body. It can take three years for a female to create and egg with yolk and an additional 7 to 8 months to create the shell. A female is only able to successfully breed every three to five years.  Once the eggs are ready and fertilized, the female can lay 1 to 19 soft-shelled, white eggs in her burrow. Incubation is extremely long at 12 to 15 months! Yes, it takes a year or more for baby tuatara to hatch into the world. This is unheard of in reptiles. Maybe not the best survival tactic for a species, but as we can see tuatara don’t do anything quickly. Similar to some other reptiles, temperature during incubation is important to the sex of a hatchling. Warmer temperatures produce males while cooler temperatures create females.  The eggs are on their own during incubation and the hatchlings have to fight for life alone as soon as they emerge from the burrow. Neither parent remains at the nest to protect the eggs or hatchlings. If they survive their early years, they have to wait ten to twenty years before they can join the reproductive cycle.  In this episode, I think we’ve proven that tuatara don’t do anything fast and that’s why their reproductive cycle is my third favorite thing about them.     If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another exciting episode about the tuatara.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.