First off, this lizard? It's not really a lizard. It's an almost vanished species, a reptile like no other.
Its nearest relatives are ichthyosaurs, pterosaurs, animals that lived during the Mesozoic, before the great dinosaurs. They're all extinct now. This is the only one (of the order Sphenodontia) to make it through the meteorite that crashed to Earth and wiped out the big guys, through ice ages, volcanoes, changes in sea levels, through rat invasions, human invasions, pig invasions.
And now, after 230 million years hunting insects in the forest, having lasted this long, this little guy is, oddly, in trouble.
New Zealand biologists worry that soon, these animals may not be able to produce females. Male babies will keep coming. But without females, they can't produce offspring.
And thereby hangs a tale.
via Krulwich Wonders... : NPR /more
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