MetaChat - 116 year old tuatara set to become a dad

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08 August 2008

116 year old tuatara set to become a dad Tuatara (NZ reptile dudes) are awesome! This guy mated for the first time earlier this year, and the eggs are in incubation.

post by: gaspode at: 15:38 | 8 comments

In 2002, Henry had a cancer tumour removed from his bottom, which could explain his whole attitude problem historically.

Ha! He literally had something up his ass.

posted by amro 08 August | 15:43

That is a cute reptile. Congrats you old lizard.

posted by LoriFLA 08 August | 15:49

I hope he passed on his old-age gene.

posted by Ardiril 08 August | 16:48

Cool. What's the life expectancy (I didn't RTFA) of those guys? At least he got some before he checked out.

posted by chewatadistance 08 August | 16:54

They are further unusual in having a pronounced parietal eye, dubbed the "third eye", whose current function is a subject of ongoing research.

From Wikipedia. All I remembered from school is that they had an eye on the top of their head, or so we were taught.

posted by danf 08 August | 17:05

Twenty five years ago he bit off his new lover Mildred's tail when the museum tried to mate the pair.

That's some wildly productive make-up sex!

posted by initapplette 08 August | 17:36

The wikipedia article says that the average lifespan is around 60 years, so Henry is doing pretty well for himself.

posted by gaspode 08 August | 17:50

Henry is awesome. I think I'd be pretty aggressive too if I couldn't get laid til I was 86.

"The warmer it is, the more likely it is that the offspring will be male and scientists predict that, without intervention, no females will be produced in 80 years."

This is a bit concerning. Hopefully Mildred's daughters will still be up for it when they're 80+.

posted by goo 08 August | 18:17

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