TUATARAS FILMED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 44, 22 February 1939, Page 9

TUATARAS FILMED

LINK WITH PREHISTORIC TIMES INTEREST OF AMERICANS L Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, Feb. 21. Tuatara lizards living on rocky islands off the Bay of Plenty coast were filmed in colour by members of the American Museum of Natural History’s expedition at present visiting New Zealand. By permission of the Department of Internal Affairs, Messrs, jG. Miles Conrad and J. B. Shackleford landed on one of the Aidermen Islands between Tauranga and Mercury Bay to secure photographs of these interesting reptiles. More than 1000 feet of film was “shot.” Th tuatara is a unique link with the strange prehistoric monsters which have vanished from the earth. It is a type of creature without any living representative. Scientists say that in certain anatomical respects it almost as closely resembles a turtle as a lizard. It possesses in a marked degree the pineal Cyclops eye in the centre of its forehead found also in certain extinct reptiles of the remot?

In view of its antiquity, it was suitable game for Mr. Shackleford’s camera, as he had previously taken part in expeditions with similar creatures of the past. He accompanied four expeditions to the Gobi Desert, where dinosaur bones and eggs were unearthed. None Destroyed. The scientists were accompanied to the island by a Government representative. No lizards were destroyed or taken away from the island. More than 1000 feet of coloured 35 millimetre film, and several dozen colour and black-and-white still photographs were taken. Mr. Conrad also made a close*study of the tuatara’s physical structure and colouring, so that perfect reproductions can be made on his return to the museum, where he is assistant curator of comparative anatomy. The tuatara lizards, extinct on the mainland, are still found on several remote coastal islands, including the Poor Knights, Aidermen, Hen and Chickens, and the Brothers and Stephen Island in Cook Strait. On the Aidermen they live upon, manuka beetles, and the vermin and scraps brought in by the dove petrels whose burrows they share. On Stephen Island they include in their diet the big wood-wetas with which the bush on the island abounds. The light-house-keepers report that they are increasing rather than decreasing in numbers. They grow to more than 30 inches in length. Copies of the films made by the expedition will, it is understood, be obtained by the New Zealand Government for record and publicity purposes.