About 130 years ago – as New Zealand women celebrated their world-first right to vote, athletes competed in the first international Olympic Games, and the first motion pictures were flickering into view – a tiny mottled green reptile with a spiny back was hatching on a small New Zealand island.
The baby tuatara – a unique and rare reptile endemic to New Zealand – emerged from his burrow into the forest floor, where he miraculously evaded birds, rats and cannibalistic adult tuatara to reach his full adult size – nearly one kilo in weight and half a metre in length – by the time he was 35.
