tuatara
/too-uh-tahr-uh/US // ˌtu əˈtɑr ə //UK // (ˌtuːəˈtɑːrə) //
图塔拉,图瓦拉,图瓦卢,图瓦特拉
Definitions
n.名词 noun
- 1
- : a large, primarily nocturnal, lizardlike reptile, Sphenodon punctatum, of islands near the coast of New Zealand: the only surviving rhynchocephalian.
Examples
The double mitochondrial genome might give tuatara flexibility in how their metabolisms respond to temperature extremes, the scientists say.
“The tuatara has the most complicated mitochondrial genome I’ve ever seen,” Macey says.
In 2012, Neil Gemmell, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and an international team of researchers began to assemble the tuatara genome, in close partnership with the Indigenous Ngātiwai people.
The Ngātiwai are considered kaitiaki, or guardians, of the tuatara and were intimately involved in decisions regarding the use of genetic data from the project.
The only reptiles in New Zealand are lizards, and a lizard-like animal called Tuatara.
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