tuatara
Department of Conservation rangers Lee and Joyce are in search of a rare animal found only on an island in New Zealand. Follow them on their quest to find and breed two Tuataras, an ancient reptile that predates the dinosaurs. RHYNCHOCEPHALIA :
Despite its current lack of diversity, the Rhynchocephalia at one time included a wide array of genera within multiple (now extinct) families, and represents a lineage stretching at least as far back as the Middle Triassic. Most rhynchocephalians belong to the group Sphenodontia ("wedge-teeth"), which are characterized by a hooked beak-like structure at the tip of the snout formed by enlarged premaxillary teeth. BIOLOGICAL CURIOSITY : The tuatara genome is considerably bigger than the human genome, and it has a unique constitution. It contains a lot of repetitive DNA segments that are unique to the species and have no known function," explains Fergal Martin, Vertebrate Annotation Coordinator at EMBL-EBI. The sequence of the tuatara genome revealed a number of aspects of this reptile's lifestyle. Although tuatara are predominantly nocturnal animals, their DNA carries a high number of genes involved in colour vision, which might help day-active juveniles escape from their predators |
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